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economic cost
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payment that must be made to obtain and retain the services of a resource
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explicit cost
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monetary payments it makes to those from whom it must purchase resources it does not own
why is it opportunity cost?-forgoes best alternatives that could have been purchased with the money
why is it opportunity cost?-forgoes best alternatives that could have been purchased with the money
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implicit cost
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opportunity costs of using the resources that it already owns rather than selling them for cash
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accounting profit
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revenue - explicit costs (explicit costs only)
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normal profit
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the typical amount of accounting profit that you would most likely have earned in one of these other ventures
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economic profit
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revenue - explicit costs - implicit costs (both ec and ic)
-threshold at $0=doing as well in their current business as they would in alternative business
-threshold at $0=doing as well in their current business as they would in alternative business
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plant capacity
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capital resources
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short run (fixed plant)
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period too short for a firm to alter its plant capacity (capital resources)
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long run (variable plant)
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period long enough for it to adjust the quantities of all the resources that it employs (long enough to enter or leave the industry)
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total product
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total output produced by the firm
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marginal product
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The extra output or added product associated with adding a unit of a variable resource
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marginal product formula
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change in total product/change total labor
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average product
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total product/units of labor
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law of dimishing returns
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assumes that all units of labor are of equal quantity
-if too many variable resources are added to the fixed resource then the marginal product will decline
-if too many variable resources are added to the fixed resource then the marginal product will decline
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short run production costs
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fixed costs (TFC): costs that do not vary with output.
variable costs (TVC): costs that do vary with output.
total cost (TC): sum of TFC and TVC.
variable costs (TVC): costs that do vary with output.
total cost (TC): sum of TFC and TVC.
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total cost
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TFC + TVC
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average fixed cost
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TFC/quantity
-indirect relationship
-indirect relationship
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Average Variable Cost (AVC)
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TVC/Q
-when average product maximum, avc is at minimum
-indirect relationship
-when average product maximum, avc is at minimum
-indirect relationship
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average total cost
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AFC + AVC
or tc/q
or tc/q
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marginal cost formula
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subtract the TC columns from each other
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marginal cost
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-change in costs when one more or one less unit of output is produced
-not fixed costs
-the more product is made the lower the price
-atc and mc have a direct relationship
-not fixed costs
-the more product is made the lower the price
-atc and mc have a direct relationship
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marginal decisions
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decisions to produce a few more or a few less units
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the long run cost curve
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-shape comes from economies then diseconomies
-red curves (short ones)=short run ATC curves of various plant sizes
-red curves (short ones)=short run ATC curves of various plant sizes
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economies of scale
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-declining ATC, output increasing
-labor and managerial specialization and efficient capital
-labor and managerial specialization and efficient capital
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diseconomies of scale
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the difficulty of efficiently controlling and coordinating a firm's operations as it becomes a large-scale producer
-communication problems
-uncoordinated decisions
rising atc
-high level of output
-communication problems
-uncoordinated decisions
rising atc
-high level of output
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constant returns to scale
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long-run average cost doesn't change
constant ATC
constant ATC
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minimum efficient scale (MES)
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lowest level of output at which a firm can minimize long-run average costs
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natural monopoly
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a relatively rare market situation in which average total cost is minimized when only one firm produces the particular good or service