Review of some basic ideas about the THEORY OF THE FIRM. • How to derive individual and market demand functions • Production isoquants • The marginal rate of technical substitution (MRTS) of labor for capital is MRTSLK = − • MRTSLK = dK = negative of the slope of the isoquant dL M PL M PK
• To move from production function to an isoquant, fix the level of output, Q. Solve for K as a function of L and your fixed Q. Then find the derivative of this function. The negative of the derivative is the MRTS. • Deriving long-run cost functions from production function – Recall the cost function is C(Q) = pL L+pK K. The cheapest, best bundle is represented by M PL pL = . M PK pK – Solve for the capital and labor in terms of output, i.e. K = K(pK , pL , Q) and L = L(pL , pK , Q).
– Plug these values into the cost function, C = pL L(pL , pK , Q) + pK K(pK , pL , Q) • Deriving short-run cost functions from production function when labor varies but capital is fixed: – Solve for L = L(pL , pK , K, Q) using the given production function. – Plug into cost function: C(Q) = pL L(pL , pK , K, Q) + pK K • Cobb-Douglas production functions: Q = F (L, K) = dLa K b • Constant, increasing and decreasing returns to scale. • Graph of marginal and average functions – If x > 0, marginal function 0, marginal function > average function, when average is rising. – The marginal function = average function, when the average function is neither falling nor rising [at a maximum or minimum] 1 d, a, b > 0
The Essay on Total, Average, and Marginal Product
Total, average, and marginal product Total Product Curve The total product (or total physical product) of a variable factor of production identifies what outputs are possible using various levels of the variable input. This can be displayed in either a chart that lists the output level corresponding to various levels of input, or a graph that summarizes the data into a “total product curve”. The ...
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Short-Run Supply Curve
Assume that firms are perfectly competitive price takers. This is a reasonable assumption if there are a large number of competing firms, buyers and sellers know the price everyone is charging and one can effortlessly find a firm charging a lower price. profit = total revenue − total cost π(Q) = P · Q − C(Q) where total cost is equal to variable cost and fixed cost, i.e. C(Q) = V (Q) + F C.1
1.1
Three Important Conditions
Condition #1: Marginal Revenue = Marginal Cost. Proof. This is your ‘first-order condition’ for finding a maximum from calculus. Since you are maximizing profits, you need to find the points where the derivative of the profit function are zero. π (Q) = P − C (Q) = 0 Label this proposed quantity as Q∗ . Condition #2: marginal cost is rising. Proof. This is your ‘second-order condition’ for checking whether the point you found in Condition #1, Q∗ , is actually a maximum point. You need to check that the second derivative of the profit function is negative.2 π (Q∗ ) = −C (Q∗ ) 0 Condition #3: Price is greater than Average Variable Cost. Proof. Check that your proposed quantity, Q∗ , satisfies this condition. Profit at Q∗ must not be smaller than profit at Q = 0, i.e. π(Q∗ ) ≥ π(0).
The profit function is: π(Q) = P · Q − (V (Q) + F C)) π(Q∗ ) ≥ π(0) P · (Q∗ ) − V (Q∗ ) − F C ≥ −F C P · (Q∗ ) ≥ V (Q∗ ) V (Q∗ ) P ≥ = AV C Q∗ If the firm were to shut down, in the short run [no variable costs, no revenues], its losses would be equal to its fixed cost since fixed costs are incurred whether or not the firm produces any output or not. As long as price is greater than or equal to short-run average variable cost, the firm is doing at least as well as it could by shutting down.
The problem should specify C(0).
If it is not stated, then you need to consider two cases (i) C(0) = 0 and (ii) the specified cost function C(Q) at Q = 0. 2 At a maximum point, the derivative decreases, i.e. goes from positive to zero to negative.
The Essay on Normal Profit Firms Run Price
The market system determines what, how and for whom goods and services are produced. The consumer determines what to produce. An increase in consumer demand will lead to a rise in price and producers will respond to higher price by raising production- to make more profits. Competition between producers determines how to produce- if they do not want to produce as cheaply as possible they will go ...
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⇒
P = C (Q)
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Short-Run Equilibrium
In most cases, we consider an industry such that the short-run supply curve for the industry is the horizontal sum of the individual supply curves. Assuming a fixed group of potential buyers and a fixed group of price-taking, profit-maximizing firms, equilibrium price and quantity is determined when market demand equals market supply.
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Long-Run Supply Curve and Equilibrium
• Firms are perfectly competitive, price-taking firms • Entry and exit. In a market with entry and exit, a firm enters when it can earn a positive long-run economic profit and exits when it faces a negative long-run economic profit. • LRAC is U-shaped reflecting economies of scale; decreasing long-run average cost for smaller levels of production to some minimum cost and increasing thereafter. • Zero economic profit means that the firm is earning a normal or competitive return. • Opportunity costs
The process of entry and exit in response to economic profits continues until all opportunities to make further economic profits have been completely exhausted. The industry is in LONG-RUN EQUILIBRIUM when all its firms make zero economic profit, so that no firm wants to leave and no firm wants to enter. 1. The quantity that an individual firm will produce will correspond to the bottom of the LRAC curve, i.e. LRAC = LRM C 2. The price that the firms (and all other competing firms) will charge, will correspond to the height of the bottom of the LRAC curve, i.e. P = LRAC = LRM C We use the long-run competitive equilibrium idea to trace out the ultimate effect of a change. In a constant-cost industry, input prices remain the same regardless of the number of firms. As a result, the ‘long-run industry supply curve’ is a horizontal line. [Can also consider increasing cost and decreasing cost industries]
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Monopoly
Let R(Q) denote total revenue and let P = P (Q) = D(Q) denote the demand curve faced by the monopolist. profit = total revenue − total cost π(Q) = P (Q) · Q − C(Q)
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The Essay on Variable Cost And Patient Services Revenue
1. Middleton Clinic had total assets of 500,000 and an equity balance of 350,000 at the end of 2010. One year late, at the end of 2011, the clinic had 576,000$ in assets and 380,000 $ in equity. What was the clinic’s dollar growth in assets during 2011, and how was this growth financed? Clinic’s dollar growth from 2010 to 2011 = 576,000-500,000= 76,000 $ It was financed in increasing of Equity by ...
Three Important Conditions
Condition #1: Marginal Revenue = Marginal Cost. Proof. This is your ‘first-order condition’ for finding a maximum from calculus. Since you are maximizing profits, you need to find the points where the derivative of the profit function are zero. π (Q) = R (Q) − C (Q) = 0 ⇒ R (Q) = C (Q)
Use the ‘product rule’ to find the marginal revenue, R (Q).
Note that if you have a linear demand curve, i.e. P = A − BQ, then M R = A − 2BQ (“doubling shortcut”).
Label this proposed quantity as Q∗ . Condition #2: At Q∗ , Marginal Revenue must cut Marginal Cost ‘from above’. Proof. This is your ‘second-order condition’ for checking whether the point you found in Condition #1, Q∗ , is actually a maximum point. You need to check that the second derivative of the profit function is negative.3 π (Q∗ ) = R (Q) − C (Q∗ )
Condition #3: Price is greater than Average Variable Cost. See Proof Short-Run. IMPORTANT: A monopolist will choose the Q∗ that satisfies these conditions, and the P ∗ that corresponds with that quantity on the demand curve, i.e. P ∗ = P (Q∗ ) = D(Q∗ ).
4.2
Other Topics
Relationship between marginal revenue and elasicity M R = R (Q) = P (Q) + Q · P (Q) using product rule Q = P (Q)[1 + P (Q)] by factoring out P (Q) P (Q) 1 P = P (Q)[1 − ] where E = −Q (P ) E Q
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At a maximum point, the derivative decreases, i.e. goes from positive to zero to negative.
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• A monopolist would never want to choose a level of output where MR is negative. • Deadweight loss • Fairness doctrine: economic profit is zero, i.e. the quantity where AC curve crosses the demand curve. • Marginal cost doctrine: ideal output, i.e. quantity where the MC curve cuts the demand curve. • Monopolist with several PLANTS: The cheapest way to produce Q in multiple plants is to split Q among plants in such a way that MC is the same at each plant. • Monopolist in different MARKETS
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Applications for Short-Run, Long-Run, Monopoly
• Sales taxes vs. excise taxes • Shifts in demand and supply curves. This depends on the context of the question. If perfectly competitive industry, consider both the short-run and long-run equilibrium, if not otherwise stated. • Consumer surplus, producer surplus • Area under marginal revenue is total revenue; area under marginal cost is total cost • Application of long-run equilibrium: a lump-sum tax on each firm versus an excise tax on each firm (Handout 15, Topic 2, page 4a).
The Term Paper on Supply and Demand and Marginal Cost
Demand function for air travel between the U. S. and Europe has been estimated to be: ln Q = 2. 737 - 1. 247 ln P +1. 905 ln I where Q denotes number of passengers (in thousands) per year, P the (average) ticket price and I the U. S. national income. Determine the price elasticity and income elasticity of demand (8 points). From Lecture Module 3 Equation 4 we learned the alternative formulation of ...
– Consider the following Cost Function, C(Q) = q 2 + 25 – With the lump sum tax of T , C(Q) = q 2 + 25 + T . You’ll see that q1 = 5, q2 = √ P1 = 10 and P2 = 2 25 + T – The per-unit value of the lump-sum tax is
T q2
√
25 + T ,
=
√ T 25+T
– With the sales tax, we want to choose t such that P2 − P1 = t. Since P1 = 10 and √ √ P2 = 2 25 + T , that means that t = 2 25 + T − 10. The new cost function is C(Q) = q 2 + 25 + tq. – In order to find which plan gives the government the most revenue, compare t and √ t = 2 25 + T − 10 Plug in values to see that t ≥ result?
T q2 . T q2
versus
T T =√ q2 25 + T
[Easiest to do this in Excel.] What is driving this
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