Question

Assume that both labor and capital exhibit diminishing returns. Suppose you can hire an additional unit of labor for $10, and she can product 50 units. You could also buy an additional machine at the cost of $200, and that machine would allow you to produce 1000 units.
If your main concern is minimizing average cost, what should you do?
a) Buy the machine, because it will allow you to produce more
b) Nothing, because you are already minimizing cost
c) There is not enough information to make a legitimate response
d) Hire more labor, because it is cheaper

Answer 1

Answer:

b) Nothing, because you are already minimizing cost

Explanation:

cost of producing one additional unit by hiring more workers = $10 / 50 units = $0.20 per unit

cost of producing one additional unit by buying the machine = $200 / 1,000 units = $0.20 per unit

Since labor exhibits a diminishing return, the next unit of labor will produce less than 50 units. This means that if you want to increase production, you should buy the machine.

Using the same logic, the previous units of labor were able to produce more than 50 units, which means that the average total cost was lower using labor than the machine. So if the company's concern is to minimize costs, then they are already doing so.