which of the following has the largest impact on opportunity cost? consumer wants tight deadlines consumer needs limited resources
The factor that has the largest impact on opportunity cost is limited resources (scarcity) , not tight deadlines or consumer wants.
Core idea
- Opportunity cost is the value of the next best alternative you give up when you choose one option over another.
- This arises because resources (like time, money, and materials) are limited while wants are effectively unlimited.
Why ālimited resourcesā is the main driver
- When resources are scarce , choosing one option necessarily means you cannot choose something else, which is exactly what creates opportunity cost.
- Consumer wants and deadlines influence which choices are made and how urgent they feel, but the tradeāoff only truly exists because resources are limited.
Intuitive check
- If resources were unlimited, you could satisfy all wants and meet all deadlines with no tradeāoffs, so opportunity cost would effectively disappear.
- Since that is not the case in real economies, limited resources are what most strongly determine the presence and size of opportunity costs.
So, among the options given, consumer needs / limited resources has the largest impact on opportunity cost.
