Question

Jack and Jill work at a bakery. In one hour, Jack can decorate either 5 ice-cream cakes or 2 wedding cakes. In one hour, Jill can decorate either 4 ice-cream cakes or 1 wedding cake. According to this scenario, which of the following outcomes will benefit both Jack and Jill the most?

A) Specializing in decorating wedding cakes.
B) Specializing in decorating ice-cream cakes.
C) Both should split their time equally between decorating both types of cakes.
D) There is no benefit to specialization in this scenario.

Answer 1

Jack and Jill should specialize in the tasks where they have a comparative advantage: Jack in decorating wedding cakes and Jill in decorating ice-cream cakes. This specialization maximizes their productivity in the bakery.

Step-by-step explanation:

When considering the best strategy for Jack and Jill's bakery work, we need to explore the concept of specialization. According to the information provided, in one hour, Jack can decorate 5 ice-cream cakes or 2 wedding cakes, while Jill can decorate 4 ice-cream cakes or 1 wedding cake. It's important to use comparative advantage to determine where their efforts would yield the highest productivity. Specialization occurs when each worker focuses on the tasks they can perform more efficiently than others.

Jack's opportunity cost of decorating one wedding cake is 2.5 ice-cream cakes (5 divided by 2), while Jill's opportunity cost is 4 ice-cream cakes (since she can only decorate 1 wedding cake). Hence, Jack has a lower opportunity cost for decorating wedding cakes, and Jill for ice-cream cakes.

Therefore, the most beneficial outcome is if Jack specializes in decorating wedding cakes and Jill specializes in decorating ice-cream cakes, as this maximizes their combined productivity through efficient allocation of work based on comparative advantage.