Question

Brian and Debbie must prepare a presentation for their Statistics class. As part of their presentation, they must do a series of calculations and prepare 50 PowerPoint slides. It would take Brian 10 hours to do the required calculation and 10 hours to prepare the slides. It would take Debbie 12 hours to do the calculations and 20 hours to prepare the slides Remember to discuss your results.

a. How much time would it take the two to complete the project if they divide the calculations equally and the slides equally? Briefly discuss.
b. How much time would it take the two to complete the project if they use comparative advantage and specialize in calculating or preparing slides? Briefly discuss
c. If Brian and Debbie have the same opportunity cost of $5 per hour, is there a better solution than for each to specialize in calculating or preparing slides? Briefly discuss

Answer 1

a. How much time would it take the two to complete the project if they divide the calculations equally and the slides equally? Briefly discuss.

Brian: 5 hours for PowerPoint and 5 hours for the calculations, total 10 hours.

Debbie: 10 hours for PowerPoint and 6 hours for the calculations, total 16 hours.

In total they would spend 26 hours combined.

If they divide the work equally, they will spend too much time.

b. How much time would it take the two to complete the project if they use comparative advantage and specialize in calculating or preparing slides? Briefly discuss

Brian will spend 10 hours doing PowerPoint slides and Debbie will spend 12 hours doping calculations. Total time spent 22 hours. By specializing they will save 4 hours.

c. If Brian and Debbie have the same opportunity cost of $5 per hour, is there a better solution than for each to specialize in calculating or preparing slides? Briefly discuss

Yes, Debbie could pay $50 to Brian so that he does everything in 20 hours. That way they can save 2 more hours.