Why are baseball uniforms for a professional baseball team considered an intermediate good? (shoes, jogging)

[Sinclairy]

There's a question on my macro econ homework which reads:

6. Which of the following is an intermediate good?

A) the purchase of gasoline for a ski trip to Colorado.

B) the purchase of baseball uniforms by a professional baseball team.

C) the purchase of a pizza by a college student.

D) the purchase of jogging shoes by a professor

The answer is C.. but why? Wouldn't baseball uniforms be considered a final good? Please help. Thanks.

[Drover]

Your question makes no sense. If the answer is C then why are you asking about B?

I don't see how any of the products are intermediate goods, but then maybe I don't have a full grasp of what is considered an intermediate good. But if in fact the answer is B instead of C, I surmise it's because the baseball team uses them to produce the final product rather than the uniform being the final product itself. If the uniforms were made for purchase by consumers (that is, the fans), then they would be final goods for sure; but when used by the team itself then the uniforms are an input of the final product, namely the on-field performance that people pay to see.

[Toxic Toast]

Originally Posted by Sinclairy

There's a question on my macro econ homework which reads:

6. Which of the following is an intermediate good?

A) the purchase of gasoline for a ski trip to Colorado.

B) the purchase of baseball uniforms by a professional baseball team.

C) the purchase of a pizza by a college student.

D) the purchase of jogging shoes by a professor

The answer is C.. but why? Wouldn't baseball uniforms be considered a final good? Please help. Thanks.

An intermediate good is used to help produce a final product. If we are thinking of a baseball team, let's say the Detroit Tigers, and the final product is the baseball game itself. In this case, the uniform is something they are using as part of the process of putting on the baseball game itself, the end purpose.

[jtur88]

From Wikipedia, -- Intermediate goods (or producer goods or semi-finished products )are goods used as inputs in the production of other goods, such as partly finished goods. Also, they are goods used in production of final goods,

I can see where a student eating pizza is the equivalent to paying the electric bill to run a machine in a factory. Presumably, the term "product" here means "product or service", since both are taken equally in the computation of value of final goods.

Arguably, more spectators will pay admission prices to see a team in glitzy uniforms (why else would glitzy uniforms be worn?), and the "product" is the entertainment event for which spectators will pay, not the outcome of the game. So the uniforms would be "intermediate goods" toward value of final goods.

In the same sense, costumes worn by performers enhance the "value" of the finished product at a concert.