Question

lunch in Jamie's dorm is an all-you-can-eat buffet, served from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. By noon, the buffet is picked over, and by 12:30, there are very few popular items left. The garbage bins, though, are full of food. If the cafeteria changed its policy so that students had to pay for each item chosen, students would: Select one: a. make the same selections as before, but eat more of what they select. b. select only the most expensive items in the buffet. c. encounter shortages earlier in the day. d. only select an item if its marginal benefit is greater than or equal to its price.

Answer 1

Answer:

d

Explanation:

A rational consumer would only consume goods for which her marginal benefit is equal or greater than the marginal cost.

Marginal benefit is the benefit derived from consuming one extra unit of a good

Marginal cost is the cost of consuming one more unit of a good

Because the buffet is all you can eat, there is no marginal cost for putting more food on your plate. Thus, students would tend to over-serve. This would lead to wastage of food.

If the policy is enacted, students would only consume goods for which their  marginal benefit is equal or greater than the marginal cost. As a result, wastages would reduce.

the items they would select would be dependent on the marginal benefit they would derive from consuming the food item