Question

Megan and Susan are roommates. They spend most of their time studying (of course), but they leave some time for their favorite activities: making pizza and brewing root beer. Megan takes 5 hours to brew a gallon of root beer and 3 hours to make a pizza. Susan takes 8 hours to brew a gallon of root beer and 4 hours to make a pizza.
Megan's opportunity cost of making a pizza is (1/2 gallon, 2 gallon, 3/5 gallon, 1 2/3 gallon) of root beer, and Susan's opportunity cost of making a pizza is (1/2 gallon, 2 gallon, 3/5 gallon, 1 2/3 gallon) of root beer.
(Megan/Susan) has an absolute advantage in making pizza, and (Megan/Susan) has a comparative advantage in making pizza.
If Megan and Susan trade foods with each other, (Megan/Susan) will trade away pizza in exchange for root beer.
The price of pizza can be expressed in terms of gallons of root beer. The highest price at which pizza can be traded that would make both roommates better off is (1/2 gallon, 2 gallon, 3/5 gallon, 1 2/3 gallon) of root beer, and the lowest price that makes both roommates better off is (1/2 gallon, 2 gallon, 3/5 gallon, 1 2/3 gallon) of root beer per pizza.

Answer 1

Answer and Explanation:

The opportunity cost of megan for making pizza would be equivalent to the root amount as she make 1 pizza in 3 hours and in 5 hours she produced 1 boot beer so in one hour she produced 1 by 5th So for 3 hours it produced 3 by 5 so the opportunity cost would be 3 by 5 root beer gallon

Likewise for susan it produced 4 by 8 i..e 1 by 2 root beer gallons

By the above calculation the megan has the absolute advantage as megan takes lesser hours i.e. 3 hours while susan takes 4 hours

And, the susan has the comparative advantage as it contains the less opportunity cost i.e 1 by 2 as compared with megan i.e. 3 by 5

Also in the case of trade off susan would trade away as she has the comparative advantage

The highest price would be better off by 3 by 5 gallon

And, the lowest price is 1 by 2