Scarcity, choice and opportunity cost：練習問題

Which of the following is a necessary consequence of scarcity?

Country S uses all its resources and produces two goods, X and Y. The table below shows Country S's output and consumption data before and after trade:

Country R uses all its resources and produces two goods, Furniture (F) and Chemicals (K). The table below shows Country R's output and consumption data before and after trade:

Which of the following is a characteristic of a free good?

Country V uses all its resources and produces two goods, Cereal (C) and Textiles (T). The table below shows Country V's output and consumption data before and after trade:

Mr. Wong is currently employed as a software engineer with a monthly salary of \( \$50,000 \). He is considering resigning from his job to start a mobile app development firm. To start the firm, he needs to withdraw \( \$1,200,000 \) from his savings account, which currently earns an annual interest rate of \( 3\% \). The monthly operating expenses (rent and utilities) for the new firm are estimated at \( \$20,000 \).

(a) Define opportunity cost. Calculate the monthly opportunity cost to Mr. Wong of starting his own firm. (3 points)

(b) Before making his final decision, Mr. Wong spent \( \$30,000 \) on a non-refundable market feasibility study last month. Explain whether this \( \$30,000 \) should be included in the opportunity cost of starting the firm today. (2 points)

(c) If the market interest rate increases to \( 5\% \) per annum, how would the opportunity cost of starting the firm be affected? Explain your answer in terms of the "cost of earlier availability of resources". (2 points)

(d) If Mr. Wong’s firm becomes extremely successful and he becomes one of the wealthiest people in the world, would he still face the problem of scarcity? Explain. (1 point)