Problem: Risk Pooling
The UGA Bookstore stocks two types of cashmere sweaters. The two sweaters are identical in every way except on the first sweater is stitched UGA FOOTBALL while on the second is stitched DAWGS FOOTBALL (we'll refer to these two types as UGA sweaters and DAWGS sweaters). Both sweaters retail for $100 apiece and cost the Bookstore $40 to procure. Because the procurement lead time is long relative to the length of the football season, the Bookstore places a single order to cover anticipated sales for the entire season. Any sweaters left over at the end of the season are shipped to a reseller for $20 apiece. The demand for UGA sweaters is normally distributed with a mean of 1000 and a standard deviation of 400. The demand for DAWGS sweaters is normally distributed with a mean of 800 and a standard deviation of 300. It's been noted that in previous years when the demand for one type of sweater is high, the demand for the other type of sweater is low, leading the Bookstore to estimate the correlation between the two sweaters at -0.40.
a. How many UGA sweaters should the Bookstore order for the season to maximize expected profit? What is the expected profit?
Number of UGA Sweaters to Order (units) __________________
Expected Profit ($) __________________
Supporting work:
b. How many DAWGS sweaters should the Bookstore order for the season to maximize expected profit? What is the expected profit?
Number of DAWGS Sweaters to Order (units)__________________
Expected Profit ($) __________________
c. The Bookstore's manager is offered the opportunity to replace the UGA and DAWGS sweaters with a new sweater on which UGA DAWGS FOOTBALL is stitched (which we'll refer to as a UGA DAWGS sweater). The manager believes that all customers who would otherwise have demanded a UGA or a DAWGS sweater will instead buy the UGA DAWGS sweater, i.e., no sales will be lost by stocking UGA DAWGS sweaters and discontinuing the UGA and DAWGS lines. In addition, all of the cost and demand information previously given remains the same. How many UGA DAWGS sweaters should the Bookstore order for the season to maximize expected profit? What is the expected profit?
Number of UGA DAWGS sweaters to Order (units) __________________
Expected Profit ($) __________________