39. While waiting in line to buy one cheeseburger for $1.50 and a medium drink for $1.00, Sally notices
that she could get a value meal that contains both the cheeseburger and medium drink and also a
medium order of fries for $2.75. She thinks to herself, “Is it worth the extra 25 cents to get the medium
fries?” To an economist, Sally’s decision is an example of:
basing decisions on total, rather than marginal, value.
an unintended consequence.
the fallacy of composition.
40. Just before class, Jim tells Stuart, “Stuart, you shouldn’t skip class today because you have paid tuition
to enroll in the class.” Stuart ignores Jim’s advice, and instead makes the decision of whether to attend
based on the importance to his grade that he feels he’d be missing that day in class relative to his value
of the extra time he could have to finish the video game he is playing. To an economist, Stuart is:
ignoring the concept of opportunity cost.
ignoring the total value of attending class.
41. Susan wishes to buy gasoline and have her car washed. She finds that if she buys 9 gallons of gasoline
at $1.50 per gallon, the car wash costs $1, but if she buys 10 gallons of gasoline, the car wash is free.
For Susan, the marginal cost of the tenth gallon of gasoline is:
42. Ralph wants to buy some milk and a box of cereal. If Ralph buys 2 quarts of milk at $1 per quart, the
box of cereal costs 75 cents. If he buys 3 quarts of milk at $1 per quart, the box of cereal is free. For
Ralph, the marginal cost of the third quart of milk is:
43. A local restaurant offers an “all you can eat” Sunday brunch for $12. Susan eats four servings, but
leaves half of a fifth helping uneaten. Why?
Her marginal value of a serving of brunch has fallen below $12.
Her marginal value of a serving has fallen below $2.36 ($12 divided by 5 servings).
Her marginal value of food has fallen to zero.
The total value she places on brunch today exactly equals $12.
44. According to marginal analysis, you should spend more time studying economics if the extra benefit
from an additional hour of study: