Question

1. Maria can read 20 pages of economics in an hour. She can also read 50 pages of sociology in an hour. She spends 5 hours per day studying.
2. Draw Maria’s production possibilities frontier
3. for reading economics and sociology.
4. What is Maria’s opportunity cost of reading
5. 100 pages of sociology? 

Answer 1

$\text{1.}\, \text{E}=20\ \text{pages}\\ \text{S}=50\ \text{pages}\\ \text{If Maria spends 5hours on reading Economics}\\ \text{she would read} (20*5)\text{pages}=100\text{pages}\\ \text{If she spends 5hours on Sociology,}\\ \text{she would read} (50*5)\text{pages}=250\text{pages}\\ \text{if she decides to spend 2.5hours each on them,}\\ \text{she would read};\\ (20*2.5)\text{pages}=50\text{pages of Economics}\\ (50*2.5)\text{pages}=125\text{pages of Sociology}\\$

$\text{2.}\, \text{To read 1 page of Sociology, she is giving up,}\\ \dfrac{50pages}{20pages}=2.5\ \text{pages of Economics}\\ \text{Therefore, to read 100 pages of Economics,}\\ \text{Maria would have to give up}\\ (100*2.5)=250\,\text{pages of Economics}\\ \text{which is her opportunity cost.}$