Chapter 13 The costs of production
Outline of topics
T1 What are costs
T2 Production and costs
T3 The various measures of cost
T4 Costs in the short run and in the long run
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T1 What are costs
• Use Hungry Helen’s Cookie Factory as an example.
• Helen, the owner of the firm, buys
– flour, sugar, flavourings, and other cookie ingredients.
– the mixers and ovens and
– hires workers to run equipments
T1.1 total revenue (TR), total cost (TC), and Profit
TR: the amount a firm receives from the sale of its output
TR=P*Q
TC: the amount a firm pays to buy the inputs into production
TC =FC+VC ; fixed cost (FC), variable cost (VC)
Profit: total revenue minus total cost
Profit = TR-TC
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T1.2 Costs as opportunity costs & the cost of capital as an
opportunity cost
• Explicit costs: input costs that require an outlay of money
by the firm
– Ex, the wages & the costs of buying ingredients
• Implicit costs: input costs that do not require an outlay of
money by the firm
– Ex 1, the owner’s opportunity costs of being involved
with a business.
– Ex 2, the opportunity cost of the financial capital that has
been invested in the business.
• Economic costs = explicit costs + implicit costs
• Economic profit: the excess of a business’s total revenue
over its economic costs ( = TR – economic costs)
• Accounting profit: the excess of a business’s total revenue
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over its explicit costs ( = TR-explicit costs)
• See Figure 13-1 on page 274
T2 Production and Costs
Use the Hungry Helen’s Cookie Factory as an example.
• Assume:
– the size of Helen’s factory is fixed &
– Helen can vary the quantity of coolies produced only by
changing the number of workers.
– It is in the short run.
• Production function: the relationship between the quantity
of inputs used to make a good and the quantity of output of
that good.
• Marginal product: the increase in output that arises from
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an additional unit of input
• Diminishing marginal product: the property whereby the
marginal product of an input declines as the quantity of
input increases
• See Table 13-1 and Figure 13-2 on page 276
From the production function to the total-cost curve
• Total-cost curve shows the relationship between the
quantity of output produced and the total cost of production.
• See Table 13-1 and Figure 13-2 on page 276 & 277
T3 The various measures of cost
• Our analysis of Hungry Helen’s Cookie Factory
demonstrated how a firm’s total cost reflects it production
function.
• From data on a firm’s total cost, we can derive several 5
• related measures of cost.
• Fixed costs (FC): costs that do not vary with the quantity of
output produced
• Variable costs (VC): costs that do vary with the quantity of
output produced.
• Average total cost (ATC) = TC/Q
• Average total cost tells us the cost of a typical unit of output
if total cost is divided evenly over all the units produced.
• Average fixed cost: AFC= FC/Q
• Average variable cost: AVC= VC/Q
• Marginal cost: the increase in total cost that arises from an
extra unit of production
• MC = change in total cost (Δ TC)
•
change in quantity (Δ Q)
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• Marginal cost tells us the increase in total cost that arises
from producing an additional unit of output
• See Table 13-2 & Figure 13-4 on page 278 & 279
Cost curves and their shapes ( three features)
– Rising marginal cost: marginal cost rises with the
quantity of output
– U-Shaped average total cost
– The marginal cost curve crosses the average total cost
curve at the minimum of average total cost.
– See Figure 13-5 on page 281
– Be aware, in this example, the firm exhibits
diminishing marginal product and therefore, rising
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marginal cost at at all levels of output.
The relationship between marginal cost and average total
cost:
• Whenever marginal cost is less than average total cost,
average total cost is falling.
• Whenever marginal cost is greater than average total cost,
average total cost is rising.
• The marginal cost curve crosses the average total cost curve
at the efficient scale
Typical cost curves
• In many actual firms, diminishing marginal product does
not start to occur immediately after the first worker is hired.
Such firm would first experience increasing marginal
product for a while before diminishing MP sets in.
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• See Table 13-3 and Figure 13-6 on page 283 & 284
• Three properties:
– 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.
T4 Costs in the short run and in the long run
• For many firms, the division of total costs between fixed
and variable costs depends on the time horizon.
• A firm’s long-run cost curves differ from its short-run cost
curves because many decisions are fixed in the short-run but
variable in the long run.
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• See Figure 13-7 on page 286.
– The Figure presents three short-run average-total-cost
(SRATC) curves for a small, medium, and large factory.
– It also presents the long-run average-total-cost curve
(LRATC).
– As the firm moves along the long-run curve, it is
adjusting the size of the factory to the quantity of
production.
– It shows how short-run and long-run costs are related.
• The LRATC curve is a much flatter U-shape than
SRATC.
• All the short-run curves lie on or above the long-run
curve.
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• These properties arise because of the greater
– flexibility firms have in the long run.
• In essence,
– in the long run, a firm gets to choose which short-run
curve it wants to use.
– But in the short run, it has to use whatever short-run
curve it chose in the past.
– See Ford’s case, increasing production from 1000 to
1200 cars per day.
• in the short run, ATC increases from $10,000 to $
12,000. Why? Because of diminishing marginal
product. Ford has no choice in the short run but to hire
more workers at its existing medium-size factory
• in the long run, ATC remains at $10,000 because Ford
can expand both the size of the factory and its work
force.
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• Economies of scale: the property whereby long-run average
total cost falls as the quantity of output increase
• Ex: specialization among labour force
• Diseconomies of scale: the property whereby long-run
average total cost rises as the quantity of output increases
• Ex: coordination problems
• Constant returns to scale: the property whereby long-run
average total cost stays the same as the quantity of output
changes.
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• Cited from Parkin & Bade ( Microeconomics Canada in the global
environment, the 3rd edition, page 219.)
• A firm’s cost curves are linked to its product curves.
– Over the range of rising marginal product, marginal cost is
falling.
– When marginal product is a maximum, marginal cost is a
minimum.
– Over the range of rising average product, average variable cost
is falling.
– When average product is a maximum, average variable cost is
a minimum/
– Over the range of diminishing marginal product, marginal cost
is rising.
– Over the range of diminishing average product, average
variable cost is rising.
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