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There are three principal cost functions (or 'curves') used in microeconomic analysis: Long-run total cost (LRTC) is the cost function that represents the total cost of production for all goods produced. Long-run average cost (LRAC) is the cost function that represents the average cost per unit of producing some good.
The total cost curve, if non-linear, can represent increasing and diminishing marginal returns.. The short-run total cost (SRTC) and long-run total cost (LRTC) curves are increasing in the quantity of output produced because producing more output requires more labor usage in both the short and long runs, and because in the long run producing more output involves using more of the physical ...
The long run total cost for a given output will generally be lower than the short run total cost, because the amount of capital can be chosen to be optimal for the amount of output. Other economic models use the total variable cost curve (and therefore total cost curve) to illustrate the concepts of increasing, and later diminishing, marginal ...
A long-run average cost curve is typically downward sloping at relatively low levels of output, and upward or downward sloping at relatively high levels of output. Most commonly, the long-run average cost curve is U-shaped, by definition reflecting economies of scale where negatively sloped and diseconomies of scale where positively sloped.
Each of these factors reduces the long run average costs (LRAC) of production by shifting the short-run average total cost (SRATC) curve down and to the right. Economies of scale is a concept that may explain patterns in international trade or in the number of firms in a given market.
Economists tend to analyse three costs in the short-run: average fixed costs, average variable costs, and average total costs, with respect to marginal costs. The average fixed cost curve is a decreasing function because the level of fixed costs remains constant as the output produced increases.
In the long run, all factors of production are variable and subject to change in response to a given increase in production scale. In other words, returns to scale analysis is a long-term theory because a company can only change the scale of production in the long run by changing factors of production, such as building new facilities, investing ...
This can be confirmed graphically. Using the diagram illustrating the total cost–total revenue perspective, the firm maximizes profit at the point where the slopes of the total cost line and total revenue line are equal. [4] An increase in fixed cost would cause the total cost curve to shift up rigidly by the amount of the change. [4]