What is the opportunity cost of devoting scarce university land to car parking?

Answer 1

Since opportunity cost is defined as the cost of any activity measured in terms of the best alternative activity which is forgone, in this case, the opportunity cost can be a field for students to play around or a land where a library can be built. Another example, would be the opportunity cost of coming to school. This answer will be the time enjoyed going to the cinema or time spent with your partner. Hence, the opportunity cost of coming to school will be the cost of not going to cinema and spending time with your partner.

Opportunity cost is defined, as the answer above says, as the difference between a course of action and another course of action. What the above answer misses is that opportunity cost is usually measured as the difference between the chosen action and the BEST alternative, not any other alternative. For instance, if you're choosing between 5 stocks, chose stock 1 and all 5 stocks go up, but stock 3 rises the most, you measure your opportunity cost against ONLY stock 3. So the opportunity cost in this case would be the BEST alternative. Unfortunately, there is no numerical way to measure the utility a university would get from various non-economic buildings like a library or cinema, so it would have to be up to the school board.