Topic 13- Firms in Competitive Markets Flashcards
Competitive Market
market with many buers and many sellers, so each individual has a negigible impact on market price
Who are price takers?
People who don’t influence the price of goods in a market
assumptions we make about competitive markets
many buyers and sellers
identitcal products and being sold
firms can freely enter/exit
sellers and buyers well informed about prices
in competitive market, is the demand for each firms output perfectly elastic or inelastic
ELASTIC, if they sell above the price, no one will buy, below, there is infinite demand, and exactly at price people will buy any quantity
When does perfect competition arise?
When the firms MINIMUM EFFICIENT SCALE is small relative to the market demand, so there is room for a lot of other firms!!!!
in monopolies min eff scale covers market demand
MINIMUM EFFICIENT SCALE
smallest quantity of output a firm can produce where the long run average cost reaches its lowest level!!!!!!!!
Profit formula
Profit= TR- TC
TR= Price x Quantity!
What is marginal revenue, what is the curve the same as?
the cahnge in total revenue that results from a one unit increase in the quantity sold!!!!
MR= CHANGE IN TOTAL REV/CHANGE IN QUANTITY
CURVE IS THE SAME AS DEMAND CURVE, because the EXTRA revenue from one extra unit produced is the market price of that good; which is wanted by consumers at this price!!
What are economic profits?
The difference between total revenues and the cost of production!!!! considering both implicit (opp costs) and explicit costs
How are profits maximized?
Marginal revenue is constant, and marginal cost increases as output increases!!!
so….
profit is maximized when marginal revenue= marginal cost!!!
what does marginal revenue curve visually look like
PERFECTLY ELASTIC!
What is MR>MC, MR<MC, MR=MC
When MR>MC, the firm is under producing!!!, producing a greater quantity increases its profit
When MR< MC, the firm is over producing, producing less increases its profit
When MR= MC, the firm is profit maximizing, no change in production will increase profit
What is the size of profit on a graph?
(P-ATC)x Q
WHERE height is Price- Average Total Cost
WHERE width is Quantity sold
hat is the difference between the Price/marginal revenue line and average total cost line show?
The profit for that one single unit of output
MULTIPLYING THIS BY THE WHOLE QUANTITY OF TH RECNTANGLE GIVES THE TOTAL PROFIT
Is maximum profit of a firm always positive?
nO!
Sometimes a loss is unavoidable, if the firms have high fixed costs!!! losses must be incurred
Is profit maximixed where MC and ATC curves intersect?
NO! because this is only maximizing profit per unit, NOT TOTAL PROFIT!!!!
The next few units of the good that are produced bring in more marginal revenue than their marginal cost
Up to where should firms increase their level of output
TO THE POINT WHERE MR=MC
How to see if a firm is making a profit/incurring a loss?
compate the firms Average TOTAL cost at the prift maximizing output (MR=MC) with the market price
If the point of the ATC curve which is in line with MR=MC is on the MR line?
The most profit the firm can make is 0- they can only break even to cover all of their costs!!!!
If the point of the ATC curve which is in line with MR=MC is ABOVE the MR line?
The firm will always be at a loss!! because price of the good will always be lower than the cost ot produce it
SMALLEST LOSS POSSIBLE RULE?
Whereever Marignal revenue= Marginal cost