Web Links

Issues and Applications—Web Resources:

• To learn about why some book authors might conclude that they benefit from publishers' book return programs, go to http://www.authorhouse.com/Services/Bookselling/BookstoreEssentials/BooksellersReturnProgram.aspx.
• For a discussion of various potential inefficiencies in the book publishing industry, go to http://www.dpsmagazine.com/content/ContentCT.asp?P=56.

Industry-Level Capital Expenditures

In this chapter, you learned about the explicit and implicit costs that firms incur in the process of producing goods and services. This Internet application gives you an opportunity to consider one type of cost—expenditures on capital goods.

Title: U.S. Census Bureau's Annual Capital Expenditures Survey

Navigation: Go to http://www.census.gov/csd/ace/ and select PDF and Spreadsheet. Then click on the PDF for the most recent Annual Capital Expenditures Survey.

Application: Read the Introduction in the report, and then answer the following questions:

1. What types of business expenditures does the Census Bureau include in this report?

2. Are the inputs that generate these business expenditures more likely to be inputs that firms can vary in the short run or in the long run?

3. Which inputs account for the largest portion of firms' capital expenditures? Why do you suppose this is so?