Foundations of Business 7th Edition
by William M. Pride, All chapter 1 - 47
,Chapter 1
End of Chapter Questions
Quiz Yourself
1. Scarcity implies that the allocation decision chosen by society can
a) not make more of any one good.
b) always make more of any good.
c) typically make more of one good but at the expense of making less of
another.
d) always make more of all goods simultaneously.
Explanation: Scarcity implies that choices involve trade-offs.
AACSB: Reflective Thinking
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Understand
Difficulty: 02 Medium
Gradeable: automatic
Learning Objective: 01-01
Topic: Economics and Opportunity Cost
2. A production possibilities frontier is a simple model of
a) allocating scarce inputs to the production of alternative outputs.
a) price and production/consumption in a market.
b) the cost of producing goods.
c) the number of inputs required to produce varying levels of output.
Explanation: The production possibilities frontier shows the quantity of two goods that
can be produced. It implies that scarcity requires that choices be made as to how to use
resources.
AACSB: Reflective Thinking
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Understand
Difficulty: 02 Medium
Gradeable: automatic
Learning Objective: 01-01
Topic: Modeling Opportunity Cost Using the Production Possibilities Frontier
,3. The underlying reason that there are unattainable points on a production possibilities
frontier is that there
a. is government.
b. are always choices that must be made.
c. are scarce resources within a fixed level of technology.
d. is unemployment of resources.
Explanation: The points outside the production possibilities frontier are unattainable. This
means that currently available resources and technology are insufficient to produce
amounts greater than those illustrated on the frontier. On a graph, everything beyond the
frontier is unattainable.
AACSB: Reflective Thinking
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Difficulty: 01 Easy
Gradeable: automatic
Learning Objective: 01-01
Topic: Modeling Opportunity Cost Using the Production Possibilities Frontier
4. The underlying reason production possibilities frontiers are likely to be bowed out
(rather than linear) is because
a. choices have consequences.
b. there are always opportunity costs.
c. some resources and people can be better used producing one good rather
than another.
d. there is always some level of unemployment.
Explanation: If the production possibilities frontier is not a line but is bowed out away
from the origin, then opportunity cost is increasing. The reason for this is that as we add
more resources to the production of, for example, pizza, we are using fewer resources to
produce soda. Compounding that problem, at each stage as we take the resources away
from soda and put them into pizza, we are moving workers who are worse at pizza
production and better at soda production than those moved in the previous stage. This
means that the increase in pizza production is diminishing and the loss in soda production
is increasing. An economist would call this an example of increasing opportunity cost. If
the production possibilities frontier is a straight line that is not bowed out away from the
origin, then opportunity cost is constant.
AACSB: Knowledge Application
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Difficulty: 01 Easy
Gradeable: automatic
Learning Objective: 01-02
Topic: Attributes of the Production Possibilities Frontier
, 5. Suppose ayou awere amodeling athe aimpact aof athe aintroduction aof acomputer
aautomation ainto amanufacturing aon aa aproduction apossibilities afrontier a(PPF) awith
atwo amanufactured agoods aon atheir arespective aaxes. aIt awould abe amore alikely athat
athe aresult awould abe a .
a) generalized agrowth awith athe aPPF amoving aboth aup aand ato athe aright.
b) specialized agrowth awith athe aPPF amoving aboth aup aand ato athe aright.
c) generalized agrowth awith athe aPPF ajust amoving aup aand anot ato athe aright.
d) specialized agrowth awith athe aPPF ajust amoving aup aand anot ato athe aright.
aExplanation: aComputer aautomation ais aa ageneral aimprovement ain atechnology aso ait
awould aimprove aall amanufacturing. aAs aa aresult, ait awould aresult ain ageneralized
agrowth aand amove athe aPPF aboth aup aand ato athe aright.
AACSB: aKnowledge aApplication
aAccessibility: aKeyboard aNavigation
aBlooms: aRemember
Difficulty: a01 aEasy
aGradeable: aautomatic
aLearning aObjective: a01-03
aTopic: aEconomic aGrowth
6. The aoptimization aassumption asuggests athat apeople amake
a. irrational adecisions.
b. unpredictable adecisions.
c. decisions ato amake athemselves aas awell aoff aas apossible.
d. decisions awithout athinking avery ahard.
Explanation: aThe aoptimization aassumption asuggests athat athe aperson ain aquestion ais
atrying ato amaximize asome aobjective. aConsumers aare aassumed ato abe amaking
adecisions athat amaximize atheir ahappiness asubject ato aa ascarce aamount aof amoney.
AACSB: aReflective aThinking
aAccessibility: aKeyboard aNavigation
aBlooms: aRemember
Difficulty: a01 aEasy
aGradeable: aautomatic
aLearning aObjective: a01-01
Topic: aThinking aEconomically