Importance of Opportunity Cost in Economics
You are familiar with direct cost, for example, how much you need to acquire that pair of shoes, but do you factor in the indirect costs? If, for example, you spend $1000 on a pair of shoes and jeans instead of paying your mortgage, that’s not the total cost incurred. You also incur future expenses such as interest on the mortgage. Opportunity cost, simply put, is the indirect cost; the unseen that you don’t give much thought, but in economics, its importance can’t be overlooked. By choosing one alternative over the other, you forego certain benefits, an essential concept in economics. Understanding this helps you make a potentially more valuable decision than the available options. Here is a glance at two opportunity cost’s importance in economics.
Making informed decisions
While running a business, you’ll have to make choices as you can’t possibly go with all the available alternatives. That’s where the opportunity cost comes in, an economics concept that lets you create a practical pick that best suits your situation. Opportunity cost is calculated by finding the difference between the return on the best-foregone option (FO) and the return on the chosen option (CO). Opportunity cost =FO-CO.
Long-term business success depends on how influential the decision-makers are while handling various considerations. For instance, if you opt to drop a particular product and focus on the production of fast-moving items, how confident are you that you won’t run out of business in the coming months? Forgoing the benefits of the product dropped requires thorough consideration. While you might be focusing on the production costs as you endeavour to lower them, you are also forgoing the benefits such a product delivers to your business. Such contributions could be making your business profitable in the long-run, stressing the need to look not only on the ongoing expenses but also the cost of forgoing the product’s proceeds soon.
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Resources allocation
Managing limited resources is among the top areas that economics addresses. While allocating resources, you hardly consider the value you miss out on as you focus on a particular area. For instance, while schooling, do you account for what you miss if you opt to do an assignment over studying to ensure that you are ready for the upcoming exams? Managing time, in this example, is the resource allocation consideration. Completing a project on time and studying are equally important. However, you need to prioritize one, ensuring that you enjoy a smooth experience as you endeavour to keep your educational pursuits on track.
Resources allocation requires an in-depth analysis of the benefits and what a particular concern demands. Opportunity cost lets you examine the immediate considerations and the possible future concerns that make a specific approach viable. Enlisting opportunity cost experts to handle your economics homework, allowing you to get enough time to prepare for exams, for example, could be a more productive approach compared to forgoing either. Missing out on that party to finance professional homework help lets you keep your grades up and academic pursuits on track. This consideration shows how pivotal opportunity cost in resource allocation is in economics.
The bottom line
Making a choice has consequences, but not making it is a lot more damaging as it increases risks while jeopardizes the opportunities available. While making a choice is essential, however, the most important consideration is picking the right one. In most cases, an option with promising short term gains wins, but the cost of dropping the alternative is usually higher. With opportunity cost, you can avoid such pitfalls and make choices with better long term payoff, a significant consideration that facilitates successful undertakings.
