Chapter 11 & 12 Flashcards
Explicit Costs
costs that require an outlay of money; paying for items/ services for firms; ie. rent, electricity, salary paid to workers
Implicit Costs
costs that do not require an outlay of money; opportunity costs; ie. labor and capital
Normal Rate of Return
rate of return just enough to keep owners and investors satisfied; two opportunity costs are equal and your economic profit is $0
Short Run
a period of time where at least one factor of production (LLK) is fized and there is no entry or exit to or from the industry
Long Run
a period of time where all factors of production (LLK) are variable and there is free entry or exit to and from the industry
Bases of a firm’s decisions
- market (output) price
- production techniques available
- input prices
Optimal Method of Production
some production techniques are more labor intensive and others are more capital intensive
Production Function
relationship between quantity of input used and quantity of output produced; in the short run constrained by the fixed factor of production; limited by resources and space
Marginal Product of Labor (MPL)
the additional product that an additional unit of labor will produce; MPL= change in TP/ change in L
Law of Diminishing Returns
Short run phenomenon; in the short run after a certain point (which varies) when additional inputs are added, the marginal product of that input declines; at some point a firm is constrained by a fixed factor of production in the s.r.
Average Product of Labor (APL)
average product produced by each variable unit of input; APL= TP/L
Fixed Costs (FC)
sum of all costs that do not vary with output even if output is 0; ie. rent, electricity, water
Variable Costs (VC)
the sum of all costs that do vary with output in the short run; to produce more output a firm requires more inputs
Total Cost
FC+VC
Average Fixed Cost (AFC)
AFC=FC/Q; steadily declining curve that approaches but never touches the quantity axis