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ECON 1050 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Profit Maximization, Sunk Costs, Marginal Product

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tanmoose627
3 Dec 2015
School
University of Guelph
Department
Economics
Course
ECON 1050
Professor
All

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Document Summary

The firm makes many decisions to achieve its main objective: profit maximization. Some decisions are critical to the survival of the firm. Some decisions are irreversible (or very costly to reverse). Other decisions are easily reversed and are less critical to the survival of the firm, but still influence profit. All decisions can be placed in two time frames: the long run and the short run. Short run: is a time frame in which the quantity of one or more resources used in production is fixed. For most firms, the capital, called the firm"s plant, is fixed in the short run. Other resources used by the firm (such as labour, raw materials, and energy) can be changed in the short run. Long run: is a time frame in which the quantities of all resources including the plant size can be varied. A sunk cost is a cost incurred by the firm and cannot be changed.

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Related Questions

Question:

Evaluate the following statement:

In the short-run, information about a perfectly competitive firm's fixed costs is needed to determine both the profit-maximizing level of output and the amount of profit earned when producing that level of output.

Answer:

The objective of a firm is to maximize profits. In determining output, the firm may be subject to two constraints: costs of production and consumer demand. The price that a perfectly competitive firm may sell its products, is determined by consumer demand. Production costs are determined by the technology used. Profits are the difference between total revenues and total costs. Pertaining to short-run profit maximization, firms maximize profits by choosing the output level where its marginal revenue equals its marginal cost.

Farnham, P. G. (2014). Economics for Managers (3rd Ed.).

I need a peer reply for this, please.


1.
If firms in a monopolistically competitive market are earningpositive profits,
A) firms will likely be subject to regulation.
B) barriers to entry will be strengthened.
C) some firms must exit the market.
D) new firms will enter the market.
2.

Panel c in the set of figures shown is consistent with a firm in amonopolistically competitive market that is


A) earning profit and is in both short-run and long-runequilibrium.
B) earning economic profit and is in short-run equilibrium, but notlong-run equilibrium.
C) earning profit and is in long-run equilibrium, but not short-runequilibrium.
D) earning a negative profit and is not in equilibrium.
3.
When a profit-maximizing firm in a monopolistically competitivemarket is producing the long-run equilibrium quantity,
A) its marginal revenue will exceed its marginal cost.
B) its average revenue will equal its marginal cost.
C) it will be earning positive economic profits.
D) its demand curve will be tangent to its average-total-costcurve.
4.
Monopolistic competition differs from perfect competition becausein monopolistically competitive markets
A) each of the sellers offers a somewhat different product.
B) strategic interactions between firms is vitally important.
C) there are barriers to entry.
D) all firms can eventually earn economic profits.
5.
The free entry and exit of firms in a monopolistically competitivemarket guarantees that
A) economic losses can persist into the long run, but not economicprofits.
B) both economic profits and economic losses can persist into thelong run.
C) economic profits can persist into the long run, but not economiclosses.
D) both economic profits and economic losses disappear in the longrun.
6.


Panel (a) shows a profit-maximizing monopolistically competitivefirm that is

A) All answers are correct
B) earning a zero profit.
C) charging a price that is equal to average total cost.
D) in long-run equilibrium.
7.
Since a firm in a monopolistically competitive market faces a
A) perfectly elastic demand curve, it will always operate withexcess capacity.
B) downward-sloping demand curve, it will always operate atefficient scale.
C) perfectly inelastic demand curve, it will always operate atefficient scale.
D) downward-sloping demand curve, it will always operate withexcess capacity.
8.
In a monopolistically competitive market,
A) firms can enter or exit the market without restriction.
B) each firm takes the price of its product as given.
C) each firm produces a product that is essentially identical tothe products of other firms in the market.
D) there are only a few sellers.
9.
The fact that there is a great deal of advertising of men’s shavingproducts indicates that
A) it costs firms very little to produce those products.
B) the market for those products is perfectly competitive.
C) those products are highly differentiated.
D) All answers are correct
10.
A profit-maximizing firm in a monopolistically competitive marketdiffers from a firm in a perfectly competitive market because thefirm in the monopolistically competitive market
A) has no barriers to entry.
B) faces a downward-sloping demand curve for its product.
C) faces a horizontal demand curve at the market clearingprice.
D) is characterized by market share maximization.

1-7 True or False

1) In the short run, a perfectly competitive firm can earn positive, zero, or negative profit depending on the market price of the firm's output.

2)In the model of the perfectly competitive firm, the firm's fixed costs are equal to its implicit costs of production.

3)Assume the market price is greater than average total cost at the perfectly competitive firm's profit-maximizing level of output. In this case, the firm is earning positive economic profits, which act as an incentive for new firms to enter the market.

4)Assume that at the current level of output, price equals marginal revenue, but is less than average total cost. So long as price is greater than average variable cost, the firm should continue to operate in the short run to minimize its losses.

5)The fact that a firm is a price-setter does not ensure it will make a positive economic profit in the short run and over time.

6)Barriers to entry serve to limit the number of firms that operate in a particular market and, as 11) such, reduce the amount of total profit earned in the market.

7)In the prisoner's dilemma game, each player's dominant strategy is also the Nash equilibrium.

14-17 Multiple Choice

14) Marginal revenue is equal to:
A) the change in P x Q due to a one unit change in output. B) the change in quantity divided by the change in price.

C) the change in price divided by the change in output. D) price, but only if the firm is a price searcher.

15) In order to maximize its profits, a price-taking firm should produce the level of output at which:

A) marginal revenue = marginal cost. B) total revenue = total cost.

C) variable revenue = variable cost. D) average revenue = average cost.

16) Assume that there is an improvement in the technology used by firms in a perfectly competitive industry that is initially in long-run equilibrium. In the short run this would cause:

A) cannot be determined with the information given. B) no change in the firm's economic profit.
C) a decrease in the firm's economic profit. D) an increase in the firm's economic profit.

17) Assume at the firm's profit-maximizing level of output P = AVC. In this case, the firm will be:

A) incurring an economic loss. B) earning a positive economic profit.

C) earning economic profit = 0. D) breaking even.