ECON 1B03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Fixed Cost, Variable Cost

The Grinch Clinic pays its nurses $20 an hour. It also pays $100 a week rent and has other weekly overhead costs of $50. Supply costs are $1 per patient. The short-run production function, relating patient visits and hursing hours, is shown here. Given this relationship and the other specified data, calculate the total variable, total fixed, and total costs; average costs (variable, fixed, and total); and marginal costs at each output level.

Patient Visits: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6

Nursing Hours: 2 - 4 -8 - 14 - 22 - 32

I understand the Total Fixed Costs is $150; I also have the nurse cost, which is the nurses hours multipled by $20 per hour rate. What I don't understand is how to get the Total Variable Cost (TVC). Textbook shows the Total Variable Costs plus the Patient Visit. For example the first TVC is 41 (40 + 1 Patient Visit). Is this correct way to gete the TVC? If so, please explain. I believe once I understand how to get the TVC that I will be able to get the Total Cost, Average Total Cost and Marginal Cost.

Please help. Thank you.

26. To the economist total cost includes 

 A. explicit and implicit costs.

B neither implicit nor explicit costs.

C. implicit, but not explicit, costs.

D. explicit, but not implicit, costs.

27. Accounting profits are typically

A. greater than economic profits because the former do not take explicit costs into account

B. equal to economic profits because accounting costs include all opportunity costs.

C. smaller than economic profits because the former do not take implicit costs into account.

D. greater than economic profits because the former do not take implicit costs into account. 

28. Suppose that a business incurred implicit costs of $200,000 and explicit costs of $1 million in a specific year. If the firm sold 4,000 units of its output at $300 per unit, its accounting profits were

A. $100,000 and its economic profits were $0.

B. $200,000 and its economic profits were $0.

C. $100,000 and its economic profits were $100,000.

D. $0 and its economic loss was $200,000.

29. The basic difference between the short run and the long run is that

A. all costs are fixed in the short run, but all costs are variable in the long run.

B. the law of diminishing returns applies in the long run but not in the short run.

C. at least one resource is fixed in the short run, while all resources are variable in the long run.

D. economies of scale may be present in the short run but not in the long run.

30. The law of diminishing returns indicates that

A. as extra units of a variable resource are added to a fixed resource, marginal product will decline beyond some point.

B. because of economies and diseconomies of scale, a competitive firm's long-run average total cost curve will be U-shaped.

C. the demand for goods produced by purely competitive industries is downsloping.

D. beyond some point, the extra utility derived from additional units of a product will yield the consumer smaller and smaller extra amounts of satisfaction.

1. When economists speak of "marginal," they mean
a. Opportunity.
b. Scarcity.
c. Incremental.
d. Unimportant.

2. Managers undertake an investment only if
a. Marginal benefits of the investment are greater than zero.
b. Marginal costs of the investment are greater than marginal benefits of the investment.
c. Marginal benefits are greater than marginal costs.
d. Investment decisions do not depend on marginal analysis.

3. A firm produces 500 units per week. It hires 20 full-time workers (40 hours/week) at an hourly wage of $15. Raw materials are ordered weekly, and they cost $10 for every unit produced. The weekly cost of the rent payment for the factory is $2,250. How do the overall costs break down?
a. Total variable cost is $17,000; total fixed cost is $2,250; total cost is $19,250.
b. Total variable cost is $12,000; total fixed cost is $7,250; total cost is $19,250.
c. Total variable cost is $5,000; total fixed cost is $14,250; total cost is $19,250.
d. Total variable cost is $5,000; total fixed cost is $2,250; total cost is $7,250.

4. Total costs increase from $1,500 to $1,800 when a firm increases output from 40 to 50 units. Which of the following is true if marginal cost is constant?
a. FC = $100
b. FC = $200
c. FC = $300
d. FC = $400

5. A manager of a clothing firm is deciding whether to add another factory in addition to one already in production. The manager would compare
a. The total benefits gained from the two factories to the total costs of running the two factories.
b. The incremental benefit expected from the second factory to the total costs of running the two factories.
c. The incremental benefit expected from the second factory to the cost of the second factory.
d. The total benefits gained from the two factories to the incremental costs of running the two factories.

6. A firm is thinking of hiring an additional worker to their organization who they believe can increase total productivity by 100 units a week. The cost of hiring him or her is $1,500 per week. If the price of each unit is $12,
a. The MR of hiring the worker is $1,500.
b. The MC of hiring the worker is $1,200.
c. The firm should not hire the worker since MB < MC.
d. All the above

7. A retailer has to pay $9 per hour to hire 13 workers. If the retailer only needs to hire 12 workers, a wage rate of $7 per hour is sufficient.
What is the marginal cost of the 13th worker?
a. $117
b. $9
c. $33
d. $84

8. If a firm's average cost is rising, then
a. Marginal cost is less than average cost.
b. Marginal cost is rising.
c. Marginal cost is greater than average cost.
d. The firm is making an economic profit.

9. After the first week of his MBA Managerial Economics class, one of your pharmaceutical sales representatives accuses you of committing the sunk-cost fallacy by refusing to allow him to reduce price to make what he considers to be a really tough sale. Which of the following suggests the sales representative may be right?
a. Most of the costs of drug development are sunk, not fixed.
b. Sales representatives are paid a sales commission on revenue, so they don't care about the costs of drug development.
c. Sales representatives don't worry that a low price today may make it more difficult for the company's other sales representatives to charge higher prices to their customers, tomorrow.
d. Sales representatives think only about one thing, sales.

10. A company is producing 15,000 units. At this output level, marginal revenue is $22, and the marginal cost is $18. The firm sells each unit for $48 and average total cost is $40.
What can we conclude from this information?
a. The company is making a loss.
b. The company needs to cut production.
c. The company needs to increase production.
d. Not enough information is provided.