3. Indicate whether each of the following statement is true or false and why:

a. Product standard cost data are often utilized by managers and analysts in departments other than the accounting department.

b. Standard cost accounting systems are expensive to operate.

c. Wage rate variance information is less useful to a production manager than labor efficiency variance information.

d. When standards cost are set tight and inventories are growing, a standard cost accounting systems tends to report lower operating profits than does an actual cost accounting system.

e. A company could have a zero balance for total material variance for an accounting period while at the same time report credit variances for both the Material Price and Material Usage Variance accounts.

f. Material price variance information is more useful to the purchasing department than is material usage variance data.

g. The contribution margin is defined as the difference between revenue and variable manufacturing costs.

h. An argument against the use of variable costing is that it does not comply with generally accepted accounting methods.

i. When manufactured inventory grows during an accounting period full-absorption costing reports slightly lower earnings than does variable costing.