In one to two paragraphs, critique the following statement: Despite the recent declines in quarterly and annual RGDP, America's economy must be improving because the unemployment rate as reported by the BLS has also continued to decline.
Do you agree or disagree? Support your position using economic terminology (being careful to explain).

(a) The variable-cost components using the high-low method is $0.37.

(b) The fixed-cost components using the high-low method is $1,442.97.

Explanation:

Note: This question is not complete and the data in its are merged together. The complete question with the sorted data is therefore presented before answering the question as follows:

The controller of Sandhill Industries has collected the following monthly expense data for use in analyzing the cost behavior of maintenance costs.

Month    Total Maintenance Costs     Total Machine Hours

January                $2,880                                  3,820

February                 3,273                                  4,364

March                     3,928                                  6,546

April                       4,632                                   8,619

May                        3,491                                   5,455

June                       4,844                                  8,730

(a) Determine the variable-cost components using the high-low method. (Round answer to 2 decimal places e.g. 2.25.)

(b) Determine the fixed-cost components using the high-low method. (Round answer to 2 decimal places e.g. 2.25.)

The explanation of the answer is now given as follows:

(a) Determine the variable-cost components using the high-low method. (Round answer to 2 decimal places e.g. 2.25.)

From the data given, the highest Total Maintenance Costs and Total Machine Hours in April, while the lowest are in January. Therefore, we have:

Variable cost per hour = (Highest Total Maintenance Costs - Lowest Total Maintenance Costs) / (Highest Total Machine Hours - Lowest Total Machine Hours = ($4,632 - $2,880) / (8,619 -  3,820) = $1,752 / 4,799 = 0.365076057511982

Rounding to 2 decimal places as required, we have:

Variable cost per hour = $0.37

Therefore, the variable-cost components using the high-low method is $0.37.

(b) Determine the fixed-cost components using the high-low method. (Round answer to 2 decimal places e.g. 2.25.)

Total cost = Total Fixed Cost + Total Variable Cost (1)

Where;

Total Variable Cost = Variable cost per hour * Hours at a particular Total Maintenance Costs

Using highest levels of activity and substitute into equation (1), we have:

$4,632 = Total Fixed Cost - ($0.37 * 8,619)

Total Fixed Cost = $4,632 - ($0.37 * 8,619) = $4,632 - $3,189.03 = $1,442.97

Therefore, the fixed-cost components using the high-low method is $1,442.97.