Chapter Thirteen
When the marginal product of an input declines as the quantity of that input increases, the production function exhibits
diminishing marginal product
A total-cost curve shows the relationship between quantity of output produced and
the total cost of production
Kate is a florist. Kate can arrange 20 bouquets per day. She is considering hiring her husband William to work for her. Together Kate and William can arrange 35 bouquets per day. What is William's marginal product?
15 bouquets
If Danielle sells 300 wrist bands for $0.50 each, her total revenues are
$150
The Three Amigo's company produced and sold 500 dog beds. The average cost of production per dog bed was $50. Each dog be sold for a price of $65. The Three Amigo's total costs are
$25,000
Bubba is a shrimp fisherman who used $2,000 from his personal savings account to buy a boat and equipment for his shrimp business. The savings account paid 2% interest. What is Bubba's annual opportunity cost of the financial capital that he invested in his business?
$40
Trevor's Tire Company produced and sold 500 tires. The average cost of production per tire was $50. Each tire sold for a price of $65. Trevor's Tire Company's total profits are
$7,500
Kate is a florist. Kate can arrange 20 bouquets per day. She is considering hiring her husband William to work for her. William can arrange 18 bouquets per day. What would be the total daily output of Kate's firm if she hired her husband?
38 bouquets
The cost of producing the typical unit of output is the firm's
average total cost
The efficient scale of the firm is the quantity of output that minimizes
average total cost
Firms may experience diseconomies of scale when large management structures are
bureaucratic and inefficient
Constant returns to scale occur when the firm's long-run average total costs are
constant as output increases
As Bubba's Bubble Gum Company adds workers while using the same amount of machinery, some workers may be underutilized because they have little work to do while waiting in line to use the machinery. When this occurs, Bubba's Bubble Gum Company encounters
diminishing marginal product
If the total cost curve gets steeper as output increases, the firm is experiencing
diminishing marginal product
A difference between explicit and implicit costs is that implicit costs
do not require a direct monetary outlay by the firm, whereas explicit costs do
Suppose that a firm's long-run average total costs of producing televisions decreases as it produces between 10,000 and 20,000 televisions. For this range of output, the firm is experiencing
economies of sale
Lease payments for the land on which a firm's factory stands is an example of an
explicit cost of produciton
A firm's opportunity costs of production are equal to its
explicit costs + implicit costs
When marginal cost is less than average total cost, average total cost is
falling
The cost of mortgage on the building is
fixed
Average total cost is increasing whenever marginal cost is
greater than average total cost
Assuming that implicit costs are positive, accounting profit is
greater than economic profit
The value of the business owner's time is an example of an
implicit cost of production
Bubba is a shrimp fisherman who could earn $5,000 as a fishing tour guide. Instead, he is a full-time shrimp fisherman. In calculating the economic profit of his shrimp business, the $5,000 that Bubba gave up is counted as part of the shrimp business's
implicit costs
The average fixed cost curve always declines with
increased levels of output
Diseconomies of scale occur when a firm's long-run average total costs are
increasing as output increases
A production function describes how a firm turns
inputs into output
Economists normally assume that the goal of a firm is to
maximize its profit
Marginal cost is equal to average total cost when average total cost is at its
minimum
Marginal cost is the change in total cost resulting from the production of
one more unit of output
The marginal product of labor is equal tot eh increase in output obtained from
one unit increase in labor
Economic profit is equal to total revenue minus the
opportunity cost of producing goods and services
The things that must be forgone to acquire a good are called
opportunity cots
Fixed cost remains the same irrespective of units of
output produced
Assume a certain firm regards the number of workers it empolys as variable but regards the size of its factory as fixed. This assumption is often realistic in the
short run but not in the long run
One assumption that distinguishes short-run cost analysis from long0run cost analysis for a profit-maximizing firm is that in the short run, the
size of the factory is fixed
Economies of scale arise when workers are able to
specialize in a particular task
Average total cost curves decline at first because fixed cost is
spread out over larger amounts of production
Accounting profit is equal to total revenue minus
the explicit cost of producing goods and services
The amount of money that firm pays to buy inputs is called
total cost
The cost of jet fuel for an airplane is
variable
If a firm produces nothing, what cost will be zero?
variable cost