Webinars Flashcards
?Total utility is best defined by which of the following??
The total satisfaction received from consuming a particular amount of a product
Accounting profit
- Total revenue less explicit costs
2. Accounting profit = TR ? Explicit costs
All Costs of Production
- Total Cost:
- Average fixed cost:
- Average variable cost
- Average total cost:
Marginal cost
Average product (AP):
Total product / Units of Labor
Benefits
The extra satisfaction from the output of more public goods.
Change in Demand
- Demand will change if there is a change in the determinants of demand, other things equal.
- Result:
- The demand curve will shift to the right if demand increases.
- The demand curve will shift to the left if demand decreases.
Change in Supply
- Supply will change if there is a change in the determinants of supply, other things equal.
- Result:
- The supply curve will shift to the right if supply increases.
- The supply curve will shift to the left if supply decreases.
Collusive Pricing (Cartel) (Obstacles to Collusion)
- Cheating
- Number of firms
- Potential entry
- Demand and cost differences
- Recession
- Legal obstacles (e.g. Antitrust law)
Complementary goods:
A decline in the price of one product increases the demand for another good.
Consumer Behavior (Utility)
- Satisfaction or pleasure
- Subjective
- Difficult to quantify
- Different from usefulness
- Two Types: Total Utility and Marginal Utility
Consumer expectations
The expectation of a lower future price of housing will reduce current demand.
Consumer Surplus
- The difference between what a consumer is willing to pay for a good and what the consumer actually pays
- The extra benefit from paying less than the maximum price
- The area under the demand curve and above the price
Cost of Production: Applications for Successful Start Up Firms
- Google, Microsoft and Apple have been very successful.
- The rapid growth of these firms are attributed to labor specialization, management specialization and more importantly economies of scale.
Cost-Benefit Analysis
- Cost-benefit analysis helps the government make decisions on which project to pursue.
- YES if:
a. Total benefit > Total cost; and
b. MB > MC
Costs
- The public sector vs. the private sector
- Resources diverted from private good production.
- The opportunity cost of producing more public goods
Costs for Production: Long Run
- Adjustable plant size and adjustable number of plants
2. Firms can enter and exit.
Costs of Production: Short Run
- Fixed plant size, land and machinery and fixed number of plants
- Firms can vary their output by changing resources used.
Costs of Production: Summary
- Marginal cost eventually rises with the quantity of output.
- The average-total-cost curve is U-shaped.
- The marginal-cost curve crosses the average-total-cost curve at the minimum of average total cost.
- Many costs are fixed in the short run but variable in the long run.
- Economies of scale, diseconomies of scale and constant returns to scale refer to properties of long-run average total cost with respect to the quantity of output of the firms.
Costs of Producton: Average fixed cost (AFC):
AFC = TFC/Q
Costs of Producton: Average total cost (ATC)
ATC = TC/Q
= TFC/Q + TVC/Q
ATC = AFC+AVC
Costs of Producton: Average variable cost (AVC)
AVC = TVC/Q
Costs of Producton: Marginal cost (MC)
MC = change in TC/change in Q
Costs of Producton: Total Cost (TC):
TC = TFC + TVC
Degree of Concentration
- Four Firm Concentration Ratio
Herfindahl Index
Demand curve
Consumers? full willingness to pay
Demand, Supply and Market Summary
- Quantity demanded, demand and the law of demand
- Demand determinants
- Individual demand vs. market demand
- Quantity supplied, supply and the law of supply
- Supply determinants
- Individual supply vs. market supply
- Demand, supply & market equilibrium
- Shortage and surplus
- Changes in demand and supply, and shifts in demand and supply
- Government-set prices; namely price ceilings and price floors
Demand:
The demand schedule and demand curve show the relationship between the price of a product and the quantity demanded.
Demand-Side Failures & Public Goods
- For a public good, its demand curve might reflect none of its consumers? willingness to pay.
- Demand-side market failures
Free-rider problem:
Demand-side market failures
- For example, education: It is not possible for Tom to make the people who get the spill-over benefit from his education pay him.
- Underproduction
Determinants of Demand
- Tastes (Preferences)
- Income
- Price of related goods
- Consumer Expectations
Number of Buyers
Determinants of Supply
- Input prices (resource prices) Higher input prices imply higher costs and lower supply.
- Technology
- Taxes and subsidies
- Prices of other goods
- Producer expectations
- Number of sellers
Dilemma of Regulation: What would you do if you were the government?
- Allow the monopolist to charge customers at P = ATC; or
- Subsidize the losses; or
- Allow the monopolist to use price discrimination in order to cover ATC.
Direct Control
Laws to limit an activity or set emission standards.
Economic Costs
- Economic costs or opportunity costs
2. Economic costs = Explicit costs + Implicit costs
Economic Effects of Monopoly
- Price, output and efficiency
- Income transfer
Cost Complications
Economic Effects of Monopoly: Cost Complications
- Economies of Scale
- X-Inefficiency
- Rent Seeking Behavior
Technological Advance
Economic Effects of Monopoly: Income Transfer
The owner of the monopolistic corporation gains at the expense of consumers.
Economic or pure profit
- Total revenue less economic costs
- Economic profit = TR ? Economic costs
- Economic profit = TR ? Explicit costs ? Implicit costs
Economic Profit Formula
(P ? ATC) x Q =
Economies of Scale
- How? Long-run ATC decreases as the size of the firm increases.
- E.g. Natural monopoly
Economies of Scale
- You tend to use a product that everybody else does.
- Simultaneous consumption
- Network effects
Efficient allocation
- Productive efficiency (Minimized cost)
2. Allocative efficiency (MB = MC)
Excludability
- A person can consume a product if (s)he is willing and able to pay.
those unable and unwilling to pay do not have access to the benefits of the product.
Explanations for the Law of Demand
- Diminishing marginal utility
- Income Effect
Substitution Effect
Explanations for the Law of Supply
- Revenue Implications
Marginal Cost
Explicit Costs
Monetary payments
Externalities
- Negative externality
2. Positive externality
Externalities
A cost or benefit of producing a product is passed onto someone else or spills over to a third party.
Four-firm concentration ratio:
- Four-firm concentration ratio = Output of four largest firms/Total output
- Four-firm concentration ratio = Sales of four largest firms/Total sales
- Very low ratio ? pure competition
- Less than 40% ? monopolistic competition
- 40% or more ? oligopolistic competition
Free-rider problem:
People can use public goods without paying for them. In other words consumers can enjoy benefits without paying.
Game Theory & Oligopoly Strategic Behavior
- Strategic behavior:
- Mutual interdependence (Pricing policy)
- Collusion (Enhances profit)
- Incentive to cheat
Prisoner?s dilemma
Government Set Prices: Ceilings on Gasoline
i. Rationing problem
ii. Ability to pay, first-come first-served or favoritism.
Black markets
Government Set Prices: Price Floor on Wheat
- Resource allocation is done inefficiently.
- Government purchases all surplus, causing tax burden to taxpayers.
- Prevention of wheat import can bring about retaliation.
Government Set Prices: Rent Control
a. Demand side: (A low rent increases demand for housing.)
b. Supply side: (A low rent makes rental units less attractive to build.)
c. In the short run, landlords convert rental units to condominiums.
d. In the long run, landlords sell rental units to invest in higher return assets.
Government Set Prices: Price ceiling:
A price ceiling is a maximum legal price.
Government-Set Prices: Price Floor
A price floor is a minimum legal price. (e.g. minimum wage)
Herfindahl Index
HHI = (%S1)2 + (%S2)2 + (%S3)2 +?+ (%Sn)2
HHI = Sum of the squared market shares of all firms
? HHI = (100)2 = 10,000 ? What does this mean?
? HHI = (30)2 + (70)2 = 5,800
If a rational consumer is in equilibrium, then:?
The marginal utility per last dollar spent is the same for all goods consumed
Implicit Costs
- Income you would have earned
- Value of next best use
- Self-owned resources
- Self-employed resources
Income
- Normal goods: As income rises, the demand for a normal good will go up.
- Inferior goods: As income rises, the demand for an inferior good will go down.
Indifference Curve Analysis
- The consumer?s preferences are represented by consumer?s indifference curves.
The slope of an indifference curve at any point is the consumer?s marginal rate of substitution.
Individual Supply & Market Supply
Like market demand, market supply is the sum of all individual supplies for all sellers of a product at a given price.
Law of demand:
- Other things equal, as price falls the quantity demanded rises.
- Other things equal, as price rises the quantity demanded falls.
Law of Demand: Income effect:
If the price goes down, purchasing power increases, enabling consumers to buy more
Law of Demand: Substitution effect:
- If the price goes down, consumers will buy more of that product and fewer of other products.
- They substitute a cheaper good for a more expensive good.