Economics (Irwin Economics)
21st Edition
ISBN: 9781259723223
Author: Campbell R. McConnell, Stanley L. Brue, Sean Masaki Flynn Dr.
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education
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Chapter 16, Problem 6DQ
To determine
Labor and capital as substitutes and complements.
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Consider a small landscaping company run by Mr. Viemeister. He is considering increasing his firm’s capacity. If he adds one more worker, the firm’s total monthly revenue will increase from $50,000 to $58,000. If he adds one more tractor, monthly revenue will increase from $50,000 to $62,000. Each additional worker costs $4,000 per month, while an additional tractor would also cost $4,000 per month. LO16.5 a. What is the marginal product of labor? The marginal product of capital? b. What is the ratio of the marginal product of labor to the price of labor (MPL/PL)? What is the ratio of the marginal product of capital to the price of capital (MPK/PK)? c. Is the firm using the least-costly combination of inputs? d. Does adding an additional worker or adding an additional tractor yield a larger increase in total revenue for each dollar spent?
Ma2.
Required:
Question 3.(LO3 Apply)
Simon Ltd is run by Simon Leather who makes leather belts for designers. He uses the finest Argentinean
leather and needs highly trained machinists to make the belts up to the quality designers expect. His beits usually sell for £50 per item and use 0.2m² of leather and 30 minutes of labor. Simon Ltd has 5 staff. They work a standard 8-hour day, 5 days a week, 48 weeks of the year. They earn £15 per hour.
Leather costs £20 per meter. Simon also has some variable overheads of £6 per unit. Fixed overheads are £28,800.
a) Calculate the number of belts Simon will have to sell to break even.
Simon decides to branch out and start to also sell handbags to the same market. The handbags sell for €250 each and use 1.5m² of leather with 1 hour of labor being required. Variable overheads are £20 per handbag.
There has been a bad case of foot and mouth in Argentina. Simon can only use the leather he has currently being shipped to him for the next…
A software company in Silicon Valley uses programmers (labor) and computers (capital) to produce apps for mobile devices. The firm estimates that when it comes to labor, MPL = 5 apps per month while PL = $1,000 per month. And when it comes to capital, MPC = 8 apps per month while PC = $1,000 per month. If the company wants to maximize its profits, it should: LO16.5 a. Increase labor while decreasing capital. b. Decrease labor while increasing capital. c. Keep the current amounts of capital and labor just as they are. d. None of the above.
Chapter 16 Solutions
Economics (Irwin Economics)
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- Complete the following labor supply table for a firm hiring labor competitively: LO17.2 Show graphically the labor supply and marginal resource (labor) cost curves for this firm. Are the curves the same or different? If they are different, which one is higher? Plot the labor demand data of review question 2 in Chapter 16 on the graph used in part a above. What are the equilibrium wage rate and level of employment?arrow_forwardPROBLEMS 1. Workers are compensated by firms with “benefits” in addition to wages and salaries. The most prominent benefit offered by many firms is health insurance. Suppose that in 2000, workers at one steel plant were paid $20 per hour and in addition received health benefits at the rate of $4 per hour. Also suppose that by 2010 workers at that plant were paid $21 per hour but received $9 in health insurance benefits. LO17.1 By what percentage did total compensation (wages plus benefits) change at this plant from 2000 to 2010? What was the approximate average annual percentage change in total compensation? By what percentage did wages change at this plant from 2000 to 2010? What was the approximate average annual percentage change in wages? If workers value a dollar of health benefits as much as they value a dollar of wages, by what total percentage will they feel that their incomes have risen over this time period? What if they only consider wages when calculating their incomes?…arrow_forwardA firm produces output (y) using two inputs, labor (L) and capital (K), according to the following Cobb-Douglas production function: y = f(L, K) = Lº25 K0.75. Assuming that we draw the isoquant map with labor on the horizontal axis and capital on the vertical axis, what is the slope of this firm's isoquant when L = 120 and K = 60? Give your answer to two decimal places and remember that the sign matters when describing the slope of an isoquant.[_____________] Part 2 : See Hint Assume that L = 120 and K = 60 and suppose that the firm decides to reduce its use of capital and replace those machine hours with some additional labor hours. Approximately how many labor hours will the firm need to add for each machine hour it cut in order to maintain the same level of output (i.e., stay on the same isoquant)? Give your answer to two decimal places. [__________] labor hoursarrow_forward
- Discuss the impact of the following factors on the optimal method of procuring an input. (LO1, LO3) a. Benefits from specialization. b. Bureaucracy costs. c. Opportunism on either side of the transaction. d. Specialized investments. e. Unspecifiable events. f. Bargaining costs.arrow_forwardWhy would a firm be happy to earn zero economic profits? Because zero economic profit means that the firm earns Select one.O. enough in total revenues to pay for all the fixed cost and some but not all of the variable costs.O. enough in total revenues to pay for all the accounting costs but none of the opportunity costs.O. zero accounting profit.O. enough in total revenues to pay for all the accounting costs and all of the opportunity costs.arrow_forwardLast year, you estimated you would earn $5 millionin sales revenues from developing a new product.So far, you have spent $3 million developing theproduct, but it is not yet complete. Meanwhile,this year you have new sales projections that showexpected revenues from the new product will actually be only $4 million. How much should you bewilling to spend to complete the product development? [LO 1.2]a. $0 .b. Up to $1 million .c. Up to $4 million .d. Whatever it takesarrow_forward
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