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In economics, a cost function represents the minimum cost of producing a quantity of some good. The long-run cost curve is a cost function that models this minimum cost over time, meaning inputs are not fixed. Using the long-run cost curve, firms can scale their means of production to reduce the costs of producing the good. [1]
[15]: 186 At low levels of production long run production functions generally exhibit increasing returns to scale, which, for firms that are perfect competitors in input markets, means that the long run average cost is falling; [4]: 227 the upward slope of the long run average cost function at higher levels of output is due to decreasing ...
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.
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 ...
The marginal cost can be either short-run or long-run marginal cost, depending on what costs vary with output, since in the long run even building size is chosen to fit the desired output. If the cost function C {\displaystyle C} is continuous and differentiable , the marginal cost M C {\displaystyle MC} is the first derivative of the cost ...
Assuming that the factor costs are constant (that is, that the firm is a perfect competitor in all input markets) and the production function is homothetic, a firm experiencing constant returns will have constant long-run average costs, a firm experiencing decreasing returns will have increasing long-run average costs, and a firm experiencing ...
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.