Problem
• Part I: Any firm's production function consists of labor and capital inputs. Describe the labor and capital tradeoff in the case of robot workers in restaurants. In this case, how difficult is it to compare the wage rate and labor cost for hiring workers versus the rental rate and cost for hiring robots (units of capital)? Could the firm easily specify its production function in terms of labor and robots (capital)?
• Part II: Describe how customers would likely view a robot versus a worker. Would management view customers and robots the same way as customers view them? Does automating some jobs give workers more or less flexibility and incentives both at this firm and on the job market in general? Describe the cost of monitoring performance. Can positive or negative worker incentives improve worker productivity over technical improvements to robots? How does the mix between capital and labor impact the reliability of service? Is there a maximum, or fixed, level of robots that can be used, especially in the short-run?