Read the statements and determine whether or not each character is using marginal analysis to make economic decisions. Answers can be used more than once. Ava decides whether or not she should spend an additional hour per day welding burn barrels by looking at how much she can produce in that hour. Miranda is pondering whether adding one more painting to her art installation will make the audience's experience better or worse. D. A. calculates how many pounds of brisket he needs to eat on a daily basis to survive by looking at the total number of calories he needs. Anna decides whether she should devote another day to studying for her music theory exam or if she can instead spend it practicing the viola. Andrea decides how much fabric she needs for her new costume-making business this month by using the total she used last month.

Ava, Miranda and Anna are using marginal analysis, while D. A and Andrea are not.

Explanation:

Let's look at the situation of each character:

Ava decides whether or not she should spend an additional hour per day welding burn barrels by looking at how much she can produce in that hour.

Marginal analysis focuses on the costs and benefits of producing an additional unit of output or using an additional unit of input. In this case, Ava wants to determine how her productivity would be modified if an additional unit of input (time) is added.

Miranda is pondering whether adding one more painting to her art installation will make the audience's experience better or worse.

She is using marginal analysis to determine whether the costs of producing an additional unit of output (one more painting on display) would be offset by the benefits, which are represented by the audience's satisfaction.

D. A. calculates how many pounds of brisket he needs to eat on a daily basis to survive by looking at the total number of calories he needs.

Andrea decides how much fabric she needs for her new costume-making business this month by using the total she used last month.

Neither D. A nor Andrea are using marginal analysis. If so, they would be interested to know what the effect of using an additional unit of input (brisket or fabric) would be to achieve their purposes. Instead, they are simply asking about the total amount of input needed to generate a certain output.

Anna decides whether she should devote another day to studying for her music theory exam or if she can instead spend it practicing the viola.

Anna uses marginal analysis because she wants to determine how her test performance would change, whether or not she invests an additional unit of time in studying.