--%>

Inter-temporal Costs and Benefits

Harvey is currently a Junior Analyst at a financial firm.  His annual salary is $30,000, and past experience leads him to believe that the real (inflation adjusted) value of his salary will remain at that level in the future.  (Assume he is paid at the end of the year.)  He aspires to work in office of the firms General Counsel, but to do so he is told he will need a JD. Further inquiries produce the following information:

• It would take three years of full-time study to obtain a JD, and the tuition and fees for each year (payable at the beginning of the year) are $20,000.

• He will need to resign his current position if he enters law school, but he can expect to earn $5,000 per year consulting on social policy issues, payable at the end of each of the three years.

• He is fortunate enough to live in the city in which the university providing the JD program is located, so he can keep his current housing arrangement.

• HE is 35 years old now; he would be 38 if he completes the JD program in timely fashion, and he anticipates working until he is 68.

• Discussions with students who have completed the JD program recently, and who have career interests similar to his lead Harvey to expect the following career profile after completion of the doctoral program at age 38:  Two years of employment as a Managing Director at an annual salary of $35,000 (payable at the end of the year), then at age 40, selection for the General Counsel’s office, at a salary of $55,000, keeping this salary (in constant dollars) until retirement.

• Harvey’s discount rate is three percent per year

Answer the following questions for Harvey:

a. Is it a good financial investment for me to get a JD? (Be sure to describe your answer in detail. Your answer should include a timeline and equations expressing the benefits and costs. If you use Excel to calculate the benefits and costs, please include the worksheet with your answers).

b. What if I wait five years before deciding whether to enter a JD program; how would this make any difference to the calculation of whether this is a good investment for me? (Make sure to indicate how this would alter either your benefit or cost equations; note that you do not need to redo calculations in (a) above)

   Related Questions in Microeconomics

  • Q : Marginal costs for producing and selling

    Monsieur Cournot has a monopoly on an artesian well from that flows tasty spring water along with medicinal properties. To ignore variable costs, he insists which customers bring their own pails as well as fill them individually. Cour

  • Q : Inefficient economic monopolists

    Monopolists are frequently considered inefficient since they set: (w) MR = MC to maximize profits. (x) P > MSC. (y) MSR < MSC. (z) output where average revenue equals price [AR = P] as well as marginal revenue equals marginal cost [MR = MC].

  • Q : Consumer Surplus-Difference in amounts

    Kiley pays $1.00 for the cold Pepsi on a hot afternoon, however would be willing to pay $5.00. The $4.00 difference in such amounts is her: (i) Consumer surplus. (ii) Income effect. (iii) Economic gain. (iv) Marginal utility. (v) Pleasure coefficient.

    Q : Ratio to determine income elasticity of

    The income elasticity of demand [at a specified price] is computed by the ratio of the relative: (a) change in quantity demanded over a given proportional change in income. (b) reciprocal of the price elasticity of supply. (c) slope of the demand curv

  • Q : Determine marginal revenue and marginal

    While this firm maximizes economic profits, in that case marginal revenue and marginal costs would be: (1) $4 per unit. (2) $6 per unit. (3) $8 per unit. (4) $10 per unit. (5) $12 per unit.

  • Q : Problem related to supply and demand

    Assume a drought in the Great Plains reduces the supply of wheat. Noting that wheat is a basic ingredient in the production of bread and that potatoes are a consumer substitute for bread, we would expect the price of wheat to: A) rise, the supply of bread to increase,

  • Q : Labor Unions and Wage Differentials The

    The counter-argument to the idea which unions cause inflation is that the union negotiated wage hikes: (i) Are not excessive except W > average revenue products. (ii) Set the pattern for non-union wage negotiations. (iii) Tend to outcome in lower salaries in non-un

  • Q : Minimum wage laws for graduates students

    Casual surveys of students at the starting of each semester reveal an amused although overwhelming maintain for a proposal to increase the legal minimum wages of graduates from college to $50,000 yearly. They supposed our proposal was facetious. But a

  • Q : Market demand in short run purely

    Ceteris paribus, inside the short run an increase into the market demand for this product would permit this purely competitive firm to be: (w) make only normal profits. (x) break even. (y) make economic profits, although not in the long run. (z) compe

  • Q : Investment by profit-maximizing pure

    For such illustrated figure profit-maximizing pure competitor, there area aPed shows: (1) fixed cost (TFC). (2) average fixed cost (AFC). (3) the lowest possible economic loss. (4) maximum economic profits. (5) the rate of return on investment. <