The table above presents the production possibilities of Farmer Brown. Use these data to calculate Farmer Brown's opportunity cost of additional beef as Farmer Brown moves from point A to B to C to D

Question

Also use the data to calculate Farmer Brown's opportunity cost of additional wheat as Farmer Brown moves from point D to C to B to A. Based on these costs, does Farmer Brown use resources that are more productive in one activity than the other? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

The opportunity cost of a pound of beef is 1 bushel of wheat per pound of beef between points A and B, 11/2 bushels of wheat per pound of beef between points B and C, and 2 bushels of wheat per pound of beef between points C and D. The opportunity cost of a bushel of wheat is 1/2 pound of beef per bushel of wheat between points D and C, 2/3 pound of beef per bushel of wheat between points C and B, and 1 pound of beef per bushel of wheat between points B and A. Farmer Brown does use resources that are more productive in one activity than the other because the opportunity costs of producing beef and wheat increase as more beef and wheat are produced. If the resources were equally productive in both activities, the opportunity costs would be constant.