Production and Price for a Monopsonist

Workers

Wage Rate

Total Labor Cost

Marginal Factor Cost (MFC)

Marginal Revenue Product (MRP)

0

$9

0

---

---

1

$11

(A)

(G)

$35

2

$13

(B)

(H)

$32

3

$15

(C)

(I)

$29

4

$17

(D)

(J)

$26

5

$19

(E)

(K)

$23

6

$21

(F)

(L)

$20

The table describes the costs and MRP for a monopsonist. Use the table above. What dollar value goes in blank (G) (i.e. what is the cost of hiring the 1st worker)?

Note: enter answer with only numerical values and round up to the nearest tenth. For example, if you think the answer is "$101.58" then enter the answer "101.6" in the space below.

Question

Production and Price for a Monopsonist

Workers

Wage Rate

Total Labor Cost

Marginal Factor Cost (MFC)

Marginal Revenue Product (MRP)

0

$9

0

---

1

$11

(A)

(G)

$35

2

$13

(B)

(H)

$32

3

$15

(C)

(I)

$29

4

$17

(D)

(J)

$26

5

$19

(E)

(K)

$23

6

$21

(F)

(L)

$20

The table describes the costs and MRP for a monopsonist. Use the table above. What dollar value goes in blank (G) (i.e. what is the cost of hiring the 1st worker)?

Note: enter answer with only numerical values and round up to the nearest tenth. For example, if you think the answer is "$101.58" then enter the answer "101.6" in the space below.

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

First, I’ll restate the problem in my own words to ensure clarity: We have a monopsonist with a table showing wages, total labor cost, Marginal Factor Cost (MFC), and Marginal Revenue Product (MRP) for hiring workers 0 through 6. The question asks for the value that belongs in blank (G), which is described as the cost of hiring the 1st worker. Since there are no answer choices provided, I will determine G directly from the table's consistency.

Step 1: Understand how MFC is defined in this context. Marginal Factor Cost for hiring the k-th worker is the change in total labor cost when moving from k-1 workers to k workers. In other words, MFC(k) = Total Labor Cost(k) − Total Labor Cost(k−1).

Step 2: Read off the given data to compute the change for the first worker. The total labor cost with 0 workers is 0 (since you’re paying no wages when there are no workers). The total labor cost with 1 worker is the wage you pay that worker, which is shown as $11 in the Wage Rate column for the first worker, and the corresponding total labor cost entry in the first row would thus be $11.

Therefore, MFC for hiring the 1st worker is MFC(1) = Total Labor Cost(1) − Total Labor Cost(0) = 11 − 0 = 11.

Step 3: Interpret the blank labeled (G). In many monopsony tables, the cells labeled with letters (A), (B), (C), etc., correspond to the numeric values of Total Labor Cost or MFC or MRP as appropriate. Since (G) appears in the column headed Marginal Revenue Product (MRP) for the first worker in the provided snippet, and the problem explicitly asks for the cost of hiring the 1st worker, it is consistent that (G) should be the MFC for the first worker, i.e., 11.

Step 4: Validate against the surrounding structure. The MRP for the first worker is given as 35 in the table (which reflects the additional revenue from employing that worker). The cost to hire that worker should be less than the MRP to justify employment, and a cost of 11 satisfies this relationship (MRP 35 > MFC 11). This alignment further supports 11 as the correct value for the first marginal cost.

Step 5: Address potential alternative interpretations to avoid confusion. If one misinterprets MFC as the wage rate paid to the single worker (which is 11) rather than the change in total labor cost, the result would still be 11 in this particular setup because the prior total labor cost is 0. If you mistakenly use the wage rate at the 0-to-1 transition, you might think of 9, but 9 is the wage at 0 workers is not defined in the sense of paying a non-existent worker; the proper change when moving from 0 to 1 worker is 11, not 9.

Conclusion (in reasoning terms): The cost of hiring the 1st worker, i.e., MFC(1), is 11. This matches the change in total labor cost from 0 to 1 worker and aligns with the table’s structure where the wage paid to the first worker is $11 and the prior total labor cost is $0.

Princip of Econ-Microeconomics Module 11 Practice Questions: Gini Coefficient & Monopsony

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