As part of their chores on Saturday mornings, they have to clean the bathrooms a
ID: 1249899 • Letter: A
Question
As part of their chores on Saturday mornings, they have to clean the bathrooms and wash the floors of the house while their parents go grocery shopping. In one hour’s time, Mike can clean two bathrooms or wash six floors. Linda, on the other hand, can clean three bathrooms or wash seven floors. The house has four bathrooms and ten rooms’ worth of floors. All along, Mike and Linda have been splitting up the work in half for each job, and thus every Saturday, each has been cleaning two bathrooms and five floors respectivelyWho has an absolute advantage in cleaning the most bathrooms and floors in the least amount of time?
On the basis of comparative advantage, who has a comparative advantage in cleaning bathrooms in the least amount of time, and who has a comparative advantage in cleaning floors in the least amount of time?
If Mike and Linda wish to reduce their opportunity costs of spending time cleaning on Saturdays, how much time will each save each Saturday if specialization based upon comparative advantages is used to divide up the work?
Explanation / Answer
Linda has an absolute advantage because she can clean more bathrooms (three to two) and floors (seven to six) with her time than Mike can. Mike has a comparative advantage in cleaning floors. By giving up a bathroom he can wash 3 floors. By giving up a bathroom, Linda can only only wash 7/3 or 2 1/3 floors. Linda has the comparative advantage in bathrooms. By giving up a floor she can do 3/7 of a bathroom; by giving up a floor Mike can only do 2/6 or 1/3 of a bathroom. If they want to reduce opportunity costs of cleaning, Mike should specialize in floors and Linda in bathrooms.
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