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Title: Microeconomics-The cost of production
Description: Concept of cost. components of economic cost. private cost and social cost. total cost. average costs. marginal cost. microeconomics.

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LECTURE 5: THE COSTS OF PRODUCTION
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the lecture, students should be able to


Describe several concepts of firms and economic
costs



Draw the curves of short-run costs



Explain the curves of short-run costs

1

PRODUCTION PROCESS AND FIRMS



Production is any activity or process of
combining inputs to transform into outputs that
produce utility at present time or in the future
...


2

CONCEPT OF COST



Generally, costs are matters that must be
exchanged or sacrificed in order to obtain
something else in return
...


3

CONCEPT OF COST



Economic costs for a good can be defined as
the value of the best alternative foregone in
order to obtain the particular good
...


4

COMPONENTS OF ECONOMIC COSTS

Economic Costs

Private Costs

Social Costs/
External Costs

5

PRIVATE COSTS AND SOCIAL COSTS



Private cost is the cost that has to be paid by an
individual who is directly involved in the
production or consumption of a particular
good
...


7

EXPLICIT COSTS AND IMPLICIT COSTS



Explicit cost is the market value of all inputs
purchased by a producer
...


8

SHORT-RUN PRODUCTION COSTS



Fixed costs are costs that do not change
according to change in output
...


9

TOTAL COST


Total Cost of a firm is the economic cost of the
firm
...




Total cost = Total Fixed Costs + total Variable
Costs



TC = TFC + TVC

10



Total Variable Cost = Total Cost – Total Fixed
Cost



TVC = TC - TFC

11

TABLE 1: TOTAL COSTS BASED ON ASSUMPTION r= RM25
per unit of capital, and w = RM10 per unit of labour
FC

VI (L)

OP

TFC

TVC

TC

AFC

AVC

AC

MC

2

0

0

50

----

50

-----

------

------

------

2

1

5

50

10

60

10

2

12

2

2

2

15

50

20

70

3
...
33

4
...
00

2

3

30

50

30

80

1
...
00

2
...
67

2

4

50

50

40

90

1
...
80

1
...
50

2

5

75

50

50

100

0
...
67

1
...
40

2

6

95

50

60

110

0
...
63

1
...
50

12

FIGURE 1: TOTAL COST CURVE, TOTAL FIXED COST
CURVE AND TOTAL VARIABLE COST CURVE


C
TC






50

VC

FC
Q

13

AVERAGE COSTS



Average Fixed Cost = Total Fixed Cost/Total
output



AFC = TFC/Q



Average Variable Cost = Total Variable Cost/
Total Output



AVC = TVC/Q

14



Total Average Cost = Total Cost / Total Output



AC = AFC + AVC

15

MARGINAL COSTS


Marginal cost is the change in total cost caused
by one unit of output change, or



Marginal Cost = Change in Total Variable
Cost/Change in Total Output



MC =

16

FIGURE 2: AVERAGE COST AND MARGINAL COST
CURVES
AC






MC
AVC





AFC
Q

17



Average fixed cost will continually decline but
does not reach zero due to the value of fixed
cost divided by total output that is increasing
...


18



Due to the continually decreasing average
fixed cost, the distance between AC and AVC
becomes narrower when output increases
...

After one point, the increase in AVC gives
a bigger effect compared to the
decrease of AFC
...


21



Marginal cost (MC) decreases along
with AVC at the early stage of
production but increases after one
point due to the law of diminishing
returns
...


22

MC intersects AC and AVC at the minimum point
of AC because if marginal or addition is lower
than average, average will decline
...

Average cost will increase if marginal cost is
higher and the contrary if marginal cost is lower
than the average cost
...

Because MC = w/MP, hence MP is maximum
when MC is minimum, and vice versa
...

This can be shown by an example
...

But also, AVC = w/AP = RM10/2 = RM5
...


25



Due to increasing orders, another worker is
hired with same wage, RM 10
...




Hence marginal product is change in total
product/ change in labour = 4/1 = 4



Marginal cost is MC = Change in Total Cost/
Change in Total Quantity = RM 10/ 4 = RM2
...




26

FIGURE 3: RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COST AND
PRODUCTION IN SHORT-RUN
MP
AP

AP

L
MC
AC
MC
AC
Q

27

ECONOMIC PROFITS VERSUS ACCOUNTING
PROFITS


Profit is the difference between total revenue (TR) with
total cost (TC)
...




Accountant only consider the explicit costs and hence the
profit calculated is referred as the accounting profit
...




Implicit cost refers to opportunity cost
...




But, he decided to start a small business by withdrawing
his savings of RM50,000 to be used as the capital
...




The rental of a shop house was RM600 per month and hired
two workers with the salary of RM700 each per month
...


30

Total revenue
Minus Explicit cost:
Shop rental (RM600 x 12 months)
Wage (RM700 x 2 workers x 12 months)
Necessary equipment
Total explicit cost
Accounting profit (Total revenue minus explicit cost)
Minus implicit cost: salary received
Reurns to savings, 10% from RM50,000
Total Implicit cost
Economic profit (Total revenue – Total costs)

RM
7,200
16,800
40,000

RM
120,000

64,000
56,000

15,000
5,000

20,000
36,000

31

EXERCISE


Based on the data below, answer the questions
...

Qty

TVC

0

0

1

180

2

240

3

270

4

315

5

420

6

630

TFC

TC

MC

AC

AVC

AFC

360

32

EXERCISE


Based on the data below, answer the questions
Title: Microeconomics-The cost of production
Description: Concept of cost. components of economic cost. private cost and social cost. total cost. average costs. marginal cost. microeconomics.