BUSI 1023 Introduction to Economics for Managers

Objectives The purpose of the Assignments is to assess the students ability to apply the economic concepts learned in each unit to practical problem-solving scenarios. Instructions Students are to complete the exercises in Word (or some other compatible word processor) and submit for evaluation. Questions
1. The purpose of economics is to provide a way to think. Economic thinking and decision-making recognize that because of scarcity something cannot be obtained without giving up something else. Consequently, we must make our decisions by comparing the costs and benefits and evaluating the tradeoffs. In doing so, five principles of economic thought come into play: tradeoffs, incentives, opportunity costs, marginal thinking, and voluntary exchange. Explain with a specific example of each how you apply these five principles of economic thought in your everyday life.
Table 1-1
Possible Output Combinations Apples (thousands of kilos)(thousands Pears of kilos) A 70 0 B 60 20 C 50 36 D 40 48 E 30 56 P 20 60 G 10 63 H 0 65
2. Refer to Table 1-1. The Fruit Farm produces only apples and pears. The table above shows the maximum possible output combinations of the two fruits using all resources and currently available technology. a. Graph the Fruit Farm's production possibilities frontier. Put apples on the horizontal axis and pears on the vertical axis. Be sure to identify the output combination points on your diagram. b. Suppose the Fruit Farm is currently producing at point D. What is the opportunity cost of producing an additional 8,000 kilos of pears? c. Suppose the Fruit Farm is currently producing at point D. What happens to the opportunity cost of producing more and more pears? Does it increase, decrease or remain constant? Explain your answer. d. Suppose the Fruit Farm is currently producing at point G. What happens to the opportunity cost of producing more and more apples? Does it increase, decrease or remain constant? Explain your answer. e. Suppose the Fruit Farm is plagued by a maggot infestation which destroys apple trees but not pears. Show in a graph what happens to its PPF.
3. Suppose you own an outdoor recreation company and you want to purchase all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) for your summer business and snowmobiles for your winter business. Your budget for new vehicles this year is $240,000. ATVs cost $8000 each and snowmobiles cost $12,000 each. a. Draw a budget line for your purchase of new vehicles. b. What is the opportunity cost of one ATV? c. What is the opportunity cost of one snowmobile?