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Firm
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an organization that combines inputs of labor, capital, land, and raw or finished component materials to produce outputs.
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Private Enterprise
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the ownership of businesses by private individuals
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Production
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he process of combining inputs to produce outputs, ideally of a value greater than the value of the inputs.
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Production
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the process of combining inputs to produce outputs, ideally of a value greater than the value of the inputs.
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perfect competition
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many firms are all trying to sell identical products.
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Monoploy
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only one firm is selling the product, and this firm faces no competition.
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monopolistic competition
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a situation with many firms selling similar, but not identical products.
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Oligopoly
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a situation with few firms that sell identical or similar products.
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Revenue
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the income a firm generates from selling its products.
Total Revenue = Price × Quantity Sold
Total Revenue = Price × Quantity Sold
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explicit costs
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out-of-pocket costs; actual payments.
Wages, rent, etc.
Wages, rent, etc.
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implicit costs
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the opportunity cost of using resources that the firm already owns.
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Accounting Profit
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the difference between dollars brought in and dollars paid out.
Accounting Profit = Total Revenue - Explicit Costs
Accounting Profit = Total Revenue - Explicit Costs
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Economic Profit
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includes both explicit and implicit costs.
Economic Profit =Total Revenue - Total Costs
Economic Profit =Total Revenue - Total Costs
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factors of production
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resources that firms use to produce their products,:
Natural Resources (Land and Raw Materials)
Labor
Capital
Technology
Entrepreneurship
Natural Resources (Land and Raw Materials)
Labor
Capital
Technology
Entrepreneurship
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production function
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mathematical equation that tells how much output (Q) a firm can produce with given amounts of the inputs.
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Fixed Inputs
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factors of production that can't be easily increased or decreased in a short period of time
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Variable inputs
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factors of production that a firm can easily increase or decrease in a short period of time
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short run
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period of time during which at least some factors of production are fixed.
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Long run
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period of time during which all factors are variable.
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Marginal Product(MP)
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the additional output of one more worker.
MP = ΔTP
ΔL
MP = ΔTP
ΔL
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Law of Diminishing Marginal Productivity
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Law of Diminishing Marginal Productivity - general rule that as a firm employs more labor, eventually the amount of additional output produced declines.
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factor payments
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what the firm pays for the use of the factors of production (aka costs, from the firm's perspective).
Raw materials prices
Rent
Wages and salaries
Interest and dividends
Profit
Raw materials prices
Rent
Wages and salaries
Interest and dividends
Profit
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variable costs
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costs of the variable inputs, like labor.
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fixed costs
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costs of the fixed inputs, like rent.
Expenditure that a firm must make before production starts
Do not change in the short run
Do not change regardless of the level of production.
Expenditure that a firm must make before production starts
Do not change in the short run
Do not change regardless of the level of production.
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Total cost
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the sum of fixed and variable costs of production
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Average Total Cost (ATC)
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total cost divided by the quantity of output produced.
ATC = TC
Q Typically U-shaped
ATC = TC
Q Typically U-shaped
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Marginal cost (MC)
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the additional cost of producing one more unit of output.
MC = ΔTC
ΔQ Generally upward-sloping
MC = ΔTC
ΔQ Generally upward-sloping
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Average variable cost
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variable cost divided by quantity of output.
-Lies below the average total cost curve and
-Typically U-shaped or upward-sloping.
-Lies below the average total cost curve and
-Typically U-shaped or upward-sloping.
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Average Profit or profit margin
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price - average cost
if the market price > average cost, then average profit will be positive.
If price is < average cost, then profits will be negative.
if the market price > average cost, then average profit will be positive.
If price is < average cost, then profits will be negative.
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Production technologies
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alternative methods of combining inputs to produce output
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Economies of scale
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the situation where, as the quantity of output goes up, the cost per unit goes down.
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Constant returns to scale
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when expanding all inputs proportionately does not change the average cost of production
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Diseconomies of scale
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the long-run average cost of producing each individual unit increases as total output increases.