Question

Olivia and Yixing are volunteering at a cat rescue shelter. The shelter supervisor asks them to clean out kennels and haul bags of cat food from the donation area into storage. It takes Olivia 6 minutes to clean out a kennel and 6 minutes to move a bag of food. It takes Yixing 10 minutes to clean out a kennel and 12 minutes to move a bag of food.

A. ____has an absolute advantage in completing both tasks.
B. Olivia's opportunity cost of cleaning a kennel:___bags of food moved.
C. Olivia's opportunity cost of moving one bag of food:_____kennels cleaned.
D. Yixing's opportunity cost of cleaning a kennel:____bags of food moved.
E. Yixing's opportunity cost of moving one bag of food:____kennels cleaned.
F. Yixing says it does not matter which task each of them performs, because Olivia is faster at both tasks. Is she correct?
A) No, Yixing should clean out the kennels, and Olivia should move the food bags.
B) No, Olivia should clean out the kennels, and Yixing should move the food bags.
C) Yes, Olivia should do both tasks because she is faster at both.
D) No, Yixing should do both tasks so that she can practice and become more efficient.

Answer 1

Answer and Explanation:

The explanation is given below:

a. Olivia has an absolute advantage as she takes less time for completing both the tasks

b. Olivia's opportunity cost of cleaning a kennel is

= 6 ÷ 6

= 1 bags of food moved.

c.

Olivia's opportunity cost of moving one bag of food is

= 6 ÷ 6

= 1 kennel cleaned

d.

Yixing's opportunity cost of cleaning a kennel is

= 10 ÷ 12

= 0.83 bags of food moved.

e.

Yixing's opportunity cost of moving one bag of food is

= 12 ÷ 10

= 1.2 kennel cleaned

f.

As from the above calculations we can see that the opportunity cost of kennel cleaning would be les sin Yixing so here Yixing should have a comparative advantage and Olivia should hhave move the food bags

Therefore the correct option is a