2nd Midterm Flashcards
Consumer equilibrium
Consumer equilibrium is a state of stability in consumer purchasing patterns in which the individual has maximized her utility.
Law of demand
The law of demand states the assumed inverse relationship between product price and quantity demanded, everything else held constant.
Market demand
Market demand is the summation of the quantities demanded by all consumers of a good or service at each and every price during some specified time period.
Price elasticity of demand
Price elasticity of demand is a measure of the responsiveness of consumers, in terms of the quantity purchased, to a change in price, everything else held constant.
Elastic demand
Elastic demand is a relatively sensitive consumer response to price changes. If the price goes up or down, consumers will respond with a large decrease or increase in the quantity demanded.
Inelastic demand
Inelastic demand is a relatively insensitive consumer response to price changes. If the price goes up or down, consumers will respond with a small decrease or increase in the quantity demanded.
Elasticity coefficient of demand
The elasticity coefficient of demand (Ed) is the ratio of the percentage change in the quantity demanded to the percentage change in price.
Perfectly elastic demand
A perfectly elastic demand is a demand that has an elasticity coefficient of infinity. It is expressed graphically as a curve horizontal to the X-axis.
Normal good or service
A normal good or service is any good or service for which demand rises with an increase in income and falls with a decrease in income.
McKenzie, Richard B.; Lee, Dwight R.. Microeconomics for MBAs (p. 309). Cambridge University Press. Kindle Edition.
Inferior good or service
An inferior good or service is any good or service for which demand falls with an increase in income and rises with a decrease in income.
McKenzie, Richard B.; Lee, Dwight R.. Microeconomics for MBAs (p. 309). Cambridge University Press. Kindle Edition.
Network good
A network good is a product or service whose value to consumers depends intrinsically on how many other people buy the good.
McKenzie, Richard B.; Lee, Dwight R.. Microeconomics for MBAs (p. 309). Cambridge University Press. Kindle Edition.
substitute goods
can be used in place of the good in question
complementary goods
are used in conjunction with the good in question
Rational consumers will _____
That is to say, they will so allocate their expenditures that the _________
equate at the margins.
marginal utility of the last unit of every good is equal to every other.
The law of demand is a
natural consequence of rational behavior.
Demand does not consist of ________
rather, it represents the _______
what people would like to have or are willing to buy at a given price;
inverse relationship between price and quantity, a relationship described by a downward sloping curve.
The market demand curve for a private good is
obtained by horizontally summing individuals’ demand curves for the good.
Total revenue will rise when demand is
Total revenue will fall when demand is
elastic and the price is reduced, and vice versa.
inelastic and the price is reduced, and vice versa.
Availability of substitutes, portion of income spent, and time available to make the purchase are determinants of
elasticity of demand.
The slope and elasticity of a demand curve are
The slope of a straight-line demand curve is
The elasticity of demand, as measured by
not the same.
the same at all points along the demand curve.
the elasticity coefficient, increases with movements up a straight-line demand curve.
Not all downward sloping demand curves are
They differ radically in terms of
The elasticity of demand can
alike.
the elasticity of demand, or the responsiveness of consumers to a price change.
heavily influence business pricing strategies.
An explicit cost
An explicit cost is the money expenditure required to obtain a resource, product or service.
McKenzie, Richard B.; Lee, Dwight R.. Microeconomics for MBAs (p. 359). Cambridge University Press. Kindle Edition.
Implicit cost
An implicit cost is the forgone opportunity to do or acquire something else or to put one’s resources to another use that doesn’t require a monetary payment.
McKenzie, Richard B.; Lee, Dwight R.. Microeconomics for MBAs (p. 359). Cambridge University Press. Kindle Edition.
Sunk cost
A sunk cost is a past cost. It is a cost that already has been incurred, which means it cannot be changed and, hence, is irrelevant to current decisions.
McKenzie, Richard B.; Lee, Dwight R.. Microeconomics for MBAs (p. 359). Cambridge University Press. Kindle Edition.
Normal profits
Zero economic profit = normal profit
Normal profits are the opportunity and risk costs of doing business not reported on firms’ P&L statements that must be covered in order that the owners will not redeploy firm resources.
Book profits
Book profits are the profits reported on firms’ “bottom lines” of their P&L statements.
McKenzie, Richard B.; Lee, Dwight R.. Microeconomics for MBAs (p. 359). Cambridge University Press. Kindle Edition.
An economic loss
An economic loss occurs when firms’ total costs, including their unrecorded opportunity and risk costs, exceed their total revenues.
McKenzie, Richard B.; Lee, Dwight R.. Microeconomics for MBAs (p. 359). Cambridge University Press. Kindle Edition.
Economic profits
Economic profits are realized when firms’ total costs, including their unrecorded opportunity and risk costs, are less than their total revenues.
McKenzie, Richard B.; Lee, Dwight R.. Microeconomics for MBAs (p. 359). Cambridge University Press. Kindle Edition.
Marginal cost
Marginal cost is the additional cost incurred by producing one additional unit of a good, activity, or service.
McKenzie, Richard B.; Lee, Dwight R.. Microeconomics for MBAs (p. 359). Cambridge University Press. Kindle Edition.
Marginal product
Marginal product is the increase in total output that results when one additional unit of a resource – for example, labor, fertilizer, and land – is added to the production process, everything else held constant.
McKenzie, Richard B.; Lee, Dwight R.. Microeconomics for MBAs (p. 359). Cambridge University Press. Kindle Edition.
Marginal revenue
Marginal revenue is the additional revenue that a firm acquires by selling another unit of output.
McKenzie, Richard B.; Lee, Dwight R.. Microeconomics for MBAs (p. 359). Cambridge University Press. Kindle Edition.
Last-period (or end-period) problem
The last-period (or end-period) problem refers to the costs that can be expected to be incurred from opportunistic behavior when the end of a working relationship approaches.
McKenzie, Richard B.; Lee, Dwight R.. Microeconomics for MBAs (p. 359). Cambridge University Press. Kindle Edition.
Firms
Firms are collections of departments (and people) who have continuing relationships that are not always up for re-bidding, which means that the parties can figure that they will be continued, with there being no clear last period.
McKenzie, Richard B.; Lee, Dwight R.. Microeconomics for MBAs (p. 359). Cambridge University Press. Kindle Edition.
Agency (or principal–agent) problem
The agency (or principal–agent) problem inside firms is the conflict of interest between the owners (principals) of firms and their hired employees (agents) that emerges because both want to maximize their own gain from the use of firm resources.
Economies of scale
Economies of scale are the cost savings that emerge when all resource inputs – labor, land, and capital – are increased together.
Cost plays a pivotal role in
Costs change with
The pattern of those changes determines the
a producer’s choices.
the quantity produced.
limit of a producer’s activity—from the production of saleable goods and
services to the employment of leisure time.
The maximizing individual will produce a good or service, or engage in an activity, until
Graphically, this is the point at which the .
At this point, although additional benefits might be obtained
by producing additional units of the good, service, or activity, the
marginal cost equals marginal benefit (marginal revenue).
supply and demand
curves for the individual’s behavior intersect
additional costs that would be incurred
discourage further production.
Costs will not affect an individual’s behavior unless
For this reason, managers can often improve incentives—increasing firm profits and employees’ benefits—by
she perceives them as costs.
Looking for hidden or implicit costs in the choices being made, and making the changes necessary to ensure that they and their workers confront those choices.
All costs—explicit and implicit—must be considered when
deciding whether to produce anything and
when deciding how much of anything should be produced if profits are to be maximized.
The market supply curve in a competitive market is the
horizontal summation of individual firms’ supply curves (or their marginal cost curves above the minimum of the average variable cost curve).
Firms exist because they tend to
reduce the overall cost of doing business, most prominently external
coordinating (or transaction) costs.
o Firm size is limited not only by
o Firm size, profitability, and survival are crucially dependent on
economies of scale but also by agency costs.
balancing internal and external coordinating
costs.