Question

Hubert lives in San Francisco and runs a business that sells boats. In an average year, he receives $842,000 from selling boats. Of this sales revenue, he must pay the manufacturer a wholesale cost of $452,000; he also pays wages and utility bills totaling $301,000. He owns his showroom; if he chooses to rent it out, he will receive $38,000 in rent per year. Assume that the value of this showroom does not depreciate over the year. Also, if Hubert does not operate this boat business, he can work as an accountant, receive an annual salary of $48,000 with no additional monetary costs, and rent out his showroom at the $38,000 per year rate. No other costs are incurred in running this boat business.
Identify each of Hubert's costs in the following table as either an implicit cost or an explicit cost of selling pianos.
Implicit Cost Explicit Cost
The wholesale cost for the pianos that Hubert pays the manufacturer
The salary Hubert could earn if he worked as an accountant
The wages and utility bills that Hubert pays
The rental income Hubert could receive if he chose to rent out his showroom
Complete the following table by determining Hubert's accounting and economic profit of his piano business.
Profit
(Dollars)
Accounting Profit
Economic Profit
If Hubert's goal is to maximize his economic profit, he( should, should not) stay in the piano business because the economic profit he would earn as an accountant would be $______.

Answer 1

Answer:

Explicit costs are normal costs of operating a business.

Implicit costs are opportunity costs meaning that they are the benefits foregone by engaging in a certain course of action.

The wholesale cost for the pianos that Hubert pays the manufacturer ⇒ EXPLICIT COST.

The salary Hubert could earn if he worked as an accountant ⇒ IMPLICIT COST.

The wages and utility bills that Hubert pays ⇒ EXPLICIT COST

The rental income Hubert could receive if he chose to rent out his showroom. ⇒ IMPLICIT COSTS

Accounting Profit = Revenue - Explicit costs

= 842,000 - 452,000 - 301,000

= $89,000

Economic Profit = Revenue - Explicit costs - Implicit costs

= 842,000 - 452,000 - 301,000 - 38,000 - 48,000

= $3,000

If Hubert's goal is to maximize his economic profit, he should stay in the piano business because the economic profit he would earn as an accountant would be -$3,000.

Economic profit as accountant = Salary + rental income - accounting profit from piano

= 48,000 + 38,000 - 89,000

= -$3,000