Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In economics, the marginal cost is the change in the total cost that arises when the quantity produced is increased, i.e. the cost of producing additional quantity. [1] In some contexts, it refers to an increment of one unit of output, and in others it refers to the rate of change of total cost as output is increased by an infinitesimal amount.
The goal of a firm is to maximize profits or minimize losses. The firm can achieve this goal by following two rules. First, the firm should operate, if at all, at the level of output where marginal revenue equals marginal cost. Second, the firm should shut down rather than operate if it can reduce losses by doing so. [1] [2]
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 ...
Marginal cost and marginal revenue, depending on whether the calculus approach is taken or not, are defined as either the change in cost or revenue as each additional unit is produced or the derivative of cost or revenue with respect to the quantity of output. For instance, taking the first definition, if it costs a firm $400 to produce 5 units ...
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.
The corresponding point on the supply curve measures marginal cost, the increase in total cost to the supplier for the corresponding unit of the good. The price in equilibrium is determined by supply and demand. In a perfectly competitive market, supply and demand equate marginal cost and marginal utility at equilibrium. [21]
CVP is a short run, marginal analysis: it assumes that unit variable costs and unit revenues are constant, which is appropriate for small deviations from current production and sales, and assumes a neat division between fixed costs and variable costs, though in the long run all costs are variable.
The minimum efficient scale can be computed by equating average cost (AC) with marginal cost (MC): = / = The rationale behind this is that if a firm were to produce a small number of units, its average cost per unit would be high because the bulk of the costs would come from fixed costs. But if the firm produces more units, the average cost ...