经济学原理 曼昆后答案 chapter 1.doc

Problems and Applications 1. a. A family deciding whether to buy a new car faces a tradeoff between the cost of the car and other things they might want to buy. For example, buying the car might mean they must give up going on vacation for the next two years. So the real cost of the car is the familys opportunity cost in terms of what they must give up. b. For a member of Congress deciding whether to increase spending on national parks, the tradeoff is between parks and other spending items or tax cuts. If more money goes into the park system, that may mean less spending on national defense or on the police force. Or, instead of spending more money on the park system, taxes could be reduced. c. When a company president decides whether to open a new factory, the decision is based on whether the new factory will increase the firms profits compared to other alternatives. For example, the company could upgrade existing equipment or expand existing factories. The bottom line is: Which method of expanding production will increase profit the most? d. In deciding how much to prepare for class, a professor faces a tradeoff between the value of improving the quality of the lecture compared to other things she could do with her time, such as working on additional research. 2. When the benefits of something are psychological, such as going on a vacation, it isnt easy to compare benefits to costs to determine if its worth doing. But there are two ways to think about the benefits. One is to compare the vacation with what you would do in its place. If you didnt go on vacation, would you buy something like a new set of golf clubs? Then you can decide if youd rather have the new clubs or the vacation. A second way is to think about how much work you had to do to earn the money to pay for the vacation; then you can decide if the psychological benefits of the vacation were worth the psychological cost of working. 3. If you are thinking of going skiing instead o