Module 5 Key Words Flashcards
Accounting Profit
Accounting profit is total revenues minus explicit costs, including depreciation. This is the accountant’s perspective on profits. Explicit costs would include payments for energy, wages, property rentals, equipment
charges, maintenance costs, and such.
Average Profit
Average profit is the total revenues, net of costs, divided by the quantity of output produced. It is the profit per unit produced. It also known as the profit margin per unit.
Average Total Cost
average total cost is total cost (variable costs plus fixed costs) divided by the quantity of output.
Calculated as (VC + FC)/Q
Average Variable Cost
average variable cost is variable cost divided by the quantity of output. Variable costs increase with the quantity produced.
For instance, labour and energy costs typically rise as firms produce more.
However, the cost of the land their factory is on would not change simple because they produced more.
Constant Returns To Scale
Constant Returns To Scale (CRS) implies that expanding all inputs proportionately does not change the average cost of production.
For instance, if I doubled the number of machines and labour I used and output
also doubled, then production would be Constant Returns To Scale.
Diminishing Marginal Productivity
Diminishing Marginal Productivity is the general rule that as a firm employs more labour, eventually the amount of additional output produced declines.
Diseconomies Of Scale
Diseconomies of scale occurs when the long-run average cost of producing output increases as total output increases.
Alternately, diseconomies of scale occur when average costs (total costs divided by
output) rises when we increase production
Economic Profit
Economic Profits occur when total revenues minus total costs (both explicit plus implicit costs) is positive.
Explicit costs include direct expenditures on labour, energy, and equipment.
Implicit costs include those things that have an opportunity cost but do not imply a direct cash payment. For instance, using your garage for a business may not have any direct costs since you own the garage. But you could have rented out the garage and so there is an implicit opportunity
cost.
Economies Of Scale
Economies of scale occur in the long-run when average cost of producing output decreases as total output increases.
Alternately, economies of scale occur when average costs (total costs divided by output) falls when we increase production.
Explicit Costs
Explicit Costs are out-of-pocket costs for a firm. For example, payments for wages and salaries, rent, or materials all imply a cash outlay and so are explicit.
Factors Of Production
Factors of production are resources that firms use to produce their products. For example, labor, capital, energy, and land are
all common productive inputs.
Firm
A firm is an organization that combines inputs of labor, capital, land, and raw or finished component materials to produce outputs.
Firms can be privately held (this is the most common). However, we would also include publically owned organizations such as hospitals and schools.
Fixed Cost
Fixed costs are the implicit and explicit costs associated with the fixed inputs.
These are expenditures that a firm must make (sometimes before production starts) and that does not change regardless of the production level. For example, rent paid by a retail shop would be a fixed cost since
the property owner may not charge more the long the shop is open
Fixed Inputs
Fixed inputs are factors of production that can’t be easily increased or decreased in a short period of time. For instance, the size of a retail space is often fixed. You can increase the size, but it can take time to do so.
Implicit Costs
Implicit costs are the opportunity cost of resources already owned by the firm and used in business.
For example, expanding a factory onto land already owned does not incur any direct land costs. But that land may have alternative uses and so entails an opportunity cost.
Long Run
The long run is period of time during which all of a firm’s inputs are variable.
For some firms, the long-run may be a week (such as a sidewalk vendor) but for other firms it can be years (such as an aircraft
manufacturer).
Long-Run Average Cost (LRAC) Curve
The long-run average cost (LRAC) curve shows the lowest possible average cost of production, allowing for all the inputs to
production to vary so that the firm is choosing its production technology.
Marginal Cost
Marginal cost is the additional total cost of producing one more unit of output.
Mathematically it is MC = ΔTC / ΔQ.
Marginal cost is also called
incremental cost.
Marginal Product of labor
The marginal product of labour is the change in a firm’s output when it
employees more labor.
Mathematically it is MPL = ΔTP / ΔL.
The marginal product of capital is the change in a firm’s output when it
employees more capital.
Mathematically it is MPK = ΔTP / ΔK.
Private Enterprise
Private enterprise is the ownership of businesses by private individuals.
Google and Facebook are private enterprises whereas SaskTel is a public
corporation (as known as a crown corporation).
Production
Production is the process of combining inputs to produce outputs. For instance, to make an auto we need to combine labour and energy with machinery on some land. So, production requires labour, capital, energy, and land.
Production Function
A production function is mathematical relationship that tells how much
output a firm can produce with given amounts of the inputs. For instance,
it takes 3 workers and 2 machines to produce one output
Production Technologies
Production technologies are alternative methods of combining inputs to produce output.
For instance, we can build a table with labour, capital, and steel or with labour, capital, and lumber. Both techniques build tables
Revenue
revenue is the income from selling a firm’s product. It is defined as price times quantity sold
Rev= P x Q.
Net revenue refers to revenue minus costs.
Short Run
The short run is a period of time during which at least one or more of the firm’s inputs is fixed.
For instance, a retail outlet can vary labour hours but cannot change its physical size in the short run
Short-Run Average Cost (SRAC) Curve
The short-run average cost (LRAC) curve shows average total cost curve in the short term (e.g some inputs to production
are fixed).
It is the sum of the average fixed costs and the average variable costs.
Total Cost
Total costs is the sum of fixed and variable costs of production. It includes all explicit and implicit costs
Total Product
Total product is a synonym for a firm’s output
Variable Cost
Variable cost is the cost of production that increases with the quantity produced. It is the cost of the variable inputs.
For instance, it would include all labour and energy costs of producing goods. But it may exclude the capital costs if these are fixed inputs.
Variable Inputs
Variable inputs are factors of production that a firm can easily increase or decrease in a short period of time.
Typically these include labour and energy but exclude plant and equipment
