Use the table to determine how many workers the firm will employ when the cost per good is $6

, and the wage rate is $25
.

Labor Input (Workers) Total Product Marginal Product of Labor
Marginal Revenue Product of Labor (per hour)

Marginal Cost of Labor (per hour)
0 0 - - -
1 7 7 $42 $25

2 16 9 $54 $25

3 24 8 $48
$25

4 28 4 $24
$25

5 30 2 $12
$25


(1 point)
Responses

five workers
five workers

two workers
two workers

four workers
four workers

three workers

1 answer

To determine how many workers the firm will employ when the cost per good is $6 and the wage rate is $25, we need to compare the Marginal Revenue Product of Labor (MRP) to the wage rate.

  1. Calculate the price of the good (P) to find the MRP: \[ \text{MRP} = \text{Marginal Product of Labor} \times \text{Price} \] Given that the price of the good is $6.

  2. For each worker, we calculate the MRP using the provided marginal product:

  • For 1 worker:

    • Marginal Product = 7
    • MRP = 7 * 6 = $42
  • For 2 workers:

    • Marginal Product = 9
    • MRP = 9 * 6 = $54
  • For 3 workers:

    • Marginal Product = 8
    • MRP = 8 * 6 = $48
  • For 4 workers:

    • Marginal Product = 4
    • MRP = 4 * 6 = $24
  • For 5 workers:

    • Marginal Product = 2
    • MRP = 2 * 6 = $12
  1. Now we compare each MRP to the wage rate of $25:
  • For 1 worker: MRP = $42 (greater than $25, hire)
  • For 2 workers: MRP = $54 (greater than $25, hire)
  • For 3 workers: MRP = $48 (greater than $25, hire)
  • For 4 workers: MRP = $24 (less than $25, do not hire)
  • For 5 workers: MRP = $12 (less than $25, do not hire)

From our analysis, the firm will employ 3 workers because it is the last worker where the MRP ($48) is still greater than the wage rate ($25).

Thus, the correct response is: three workers.