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firms want to maximize their profits by engaging in
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profit maximization
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profit =
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total revenue - total cost
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production technology is
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used by firms to turn inputs into outputs
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fixed costs
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they do not change based on output change (ex: machinery)
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variable costs
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change based on change in output (ex: number of workers and buying more resources)
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in the short term firms cannot change
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fixed costs or technology but they can adjust variable inputs
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in the long term firms can change
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both fixed and variable costs
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the extent of short term and long term depend on the
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nature of the business
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explicit costs
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firm spends money on buying items (wages and payments)
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implicit costs
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opportunities costs of the business
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accounting profit =
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total revenue - explicit financial costs/ answers the question about what you spend your money on
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the opportunity cost of running a business includes
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forgone wages and interest
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economic profit =
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total revenue - (explicit costs + implicit costs)/ answers the question what is my best decision
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economic profit takes in account
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opportunity costs and time
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use average revenue and average costs to measure if a business is
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profitable
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average revenue =
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total revenue/ quantity
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average costs =
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(fixed costs/ their quantity) + (variable costs/ their quantity)
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as you start to increase production from a low level your
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average costs will initially fall
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eventually variable costs rise at it
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becomes more expensive to inc production
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profit margin =
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average revenue - average costs
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posit profit margin means you have
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economic profit
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economic profit is important for long run analysis of
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firm entry and exit
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The main difference between the short run and the long run is that
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in the short run, at least one of the firm's inputs is fixed.
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A firm's ___________________ are costs that increase as quantity produced increases. These costs often show _______________________ by increasing at an increasing rate.
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variable costs; diminishing marginal returns
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A firm's ___________________ are costs that are incurred even if there is no output. In the short run, these costs ___________________ as production increases
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fixed costs; do not change
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Accounting profit is different than economic profit because
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accounting profit ignores the opportunity cost of launching a new business.
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After doing your research, you are confident that you will make an accounting profit if you launch the business but feel it is very unlikely that you will make an economic profit. In this case, you ____________
start the business.
start the business.
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should not
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economic profit and accounting profit both use
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explicit costs
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a firms economic profit can be different from
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accounting profit
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implicit costs are related to
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opportunity costs
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total costs =
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fixed costs + variable costs
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marginal costs =
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change in total costs / change in quantity
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average total costs =
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total costs / quantity
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average variable costs =
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variable costs / quantity
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marginal costs curve is u shaped because
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when your business is small there are more inefficiencies so as we hire more the business becomes more efficient/ however marginal costs will decrease when a business wants to largely expand due to increasing marginal costs: each worker will ultimately become less efficient and cost more
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average total costs decline quickly because
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fixed costs are being spied over more units
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average total costs intersect marginal cost curve when
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it is at its lowest
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since marginal cost is the cost of the next unit and average cost is costs spread over all units, if the next unit costs more than the average of the previous unit the
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average goes up
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average variable costs are always below average total costs because
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they do not include fixed costs
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average variable costs also intersect marginal cost curve at lowest point for same reason that average total cost does:
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once marginal costs are above average variable costs the average variable costs must increase
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in the long run there are not fixed costs only
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variable costs
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long run averrable variable costs allow for change in business size and machinery which leads to economies of scale:
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when long run average costs fall, quantity/ output increase
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Average fixed costs will
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fall as output rises.
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the amount by which total cost increases when an additional unit is produced:
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marginal costs
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the sum of all costs that change as output changes divided by the number of units produced:
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average variable costs
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Average cost equals:
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total cost divided by output.
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The change in total variable cost which accompanies one extra unit of output is
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marginal cost.
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The marginal cost curve intersects
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the minimum of the average variable cost and average total cost curves.