BMW recently decided to build a manufacturing plant in Shenyang. China. At this plant, BMW is able to take advantage of paying lower wages to its Chinese workers than it pays its German workers, but it also sacrifices the high levels of technical training possessed by its German workers. In deciding to open the Shenyang plant, BMW.

A) faced no trade-offs because employing lower-wage workers increased efficiency

B) faced a trade-off between higher cost and lower precision.

C) adopted a negative technological change because it replaced high-skilled workers with low-skilled workers.

D) eroded some of its competitiveness in the luxury car market because of its decreased cost of production.

B) faced a trade-off between higher cost and lower precision.

Explanation:

A trade-off represents a sacrifice made by preferring one choice over another. A trade-off occurs when an organization or an individual has to decide between options. Some economists will interchange the phrase trade-off and opportunity cost. The trade-off cost will represent the cost of the forfeited benefit for not deciding in a particular way.

BMW had to choose between continuing with highly skilled and expensive German technicians or work with less qualified but cheap Chinese employees. The company decided to operate in china using the lower cost of labor. The skilled German technicians are the trade-off. The opportunity cost or trade-off cost will be the efficiency and precision of the German technicians.