5. Individual Problems 19-5 Soft selling occurs when a buyer is skeptical of the usefulness of a product and the seller offers to set a price that depends on realized value. For example, suppose a sales representative is trying to sell a company a new accounting system that will, with certainty, reduce costs by 20%. However, the customer has heard this claim before and believes there is only a 50% chance of actually realizing that cost reduction and a 50% chance of realizing no cost reduction. Assume the customer has an initial total cost of $300. According to the customer's beliefs, the expected value of the accounting system, or the expected reduction in cost, is . Suppose the sales representative initially offers the accounting system to the customer for a price of $45.00. The information asymmetry stems from the fact that the V has more information about the efficacy of the accounting system than does the V . At this price, the customer V purchase the accounting system, since the expected value of the accounting system is V than the price. Instead of naming a price, suppose the sales representative offers to give the customer the product in exchange for 50% of the cost savings. If there is no reduction in cost for the customer, then the customer does not have to pay. True or False: This pricing scheme worsens the problem of information asymmetry in this scenario. 0 True 0 False You need to hire some new employees to staff your startup venture. You know that potential employees are distributed throughout the population as follows, but you can't distinguish among them: EmployeeValue Probability $35,000 0.25 $54,000 0.25 $73,000 0.25 $92,000 0.25 The expected value of hiring one employee is . Suppose you set the salary of the position equal to the expected value of an employee. Assume that employees will not work for a salary below their employee value. The expected value of an employee who would apply for the position, at this salary, is . Given this adverse selection, your most reasonable salary offer (that ensures you do not lose money) is V