Chapter 7: Resource Markets

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Chapter 7:

Resource Markets

Chapter Focus:

 How businesses maximize profits by choosing how much of each economic resource to use

 The demand for resources by businesses that are price-takers and price-makers in the markets in which they sell their products

 The supply of labour, how wage rates are determined, and labour market equilibrium

 Factors that change resource demand

 Price elasticity of resource demand and the factors that determine it

How Resource Markets Operate:

Wage: the amount earned by a worker for providing labour for a certain period of time; sometimes know as salary

The Demand for Resources:

It depends on the demand of the final goods and services

Marginal productivity theory:

The theory that businesses use resources based on how much extra profit these resources provide

Product and Resource Price-Taker:

Marginal Product:

 The change in output by adding/changing in input (worker) while all other factors remain constant

Marginal revenue product: (MRP)

 the change in total revenue associated with employing each new unit of a resource

Labour demand and supply:

 Marginal resource cost: (MRC) the extra cost of each additional unit of resource

Business’s labour demand curve:

 a graph showing the possible combinations of workers demanded by a business at each possible wage

Business’s labour supply curve:

 a graph showing the possible combinations of workers supplied to a business at each possible wage

Profit-maximizing Employment Rule:

 states that a business should use a resource up to the point where the resource’s marginal revenue product equals its marginal resource cost

Profit-Maximizing employment rule: MRP = MRC

Market Demand and Supply:

Labour market demand curve:

 A graph showing the possible combinations of workers demanded in a certain labour market at each possible wage

Labour market supply curve:

 A graph showing the possible combinations of workers supplying their labour in a certain labour market at each possible wage

Changes in Resource Demand:

 Product Demand

 Other Resource Prices

Complementary Resources: resources that are used together

Labour Productivity: the quantity of output produced per worker in a given period of time; the average product of labour

Substitute Resources: resources that can be used in place of one another without affecting output

 Technological Innovation

 Increase productivity

Price Elasticity of Resource Demand:

1.

Rate of Decline in Marginal Product

2.

Price Elasticity of Product Demand

3.

Proportion of Total Costs

4.

Substitute Resources

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