Review Questions
What are explicit and implicit costs?
Would an interest payment on a loan to a firm be considered an explicit or implicit cost?
What is the difference between accounting and economic profit?
What is normal profit?
What is the difference between fixed costs and variable costs?
Are there fixed costs in the long-run? Explain briefly.
Are fixed costs also sunk costs? Explain.
What are diminishing marginal returns as they relate to costs?
Which costs are measured on per-unit basis: fixed costs, average cost, average variable cost, variable costs, and marginal cost?
How is each of the following calculated: marginal cost, average total cost, and average variable cost?
What shapes would you generally expect each of the following cost curves to have: fixed costs, variable costs, marginal costs, average total costs, and average variable costs?
What is a production technology?
In choosing a production technology, how will firms react if one input becomes relatively more expensive?
What is the relationship between cost minimization and productive efficiency?
What is a long-run average cost curve?
What is the difference between economies of scale, constant returns to scale, and diseconomies of scale?
What shape of a long-run average cost curve illustrates economies of scale, constant returns to scale, and diseconomies of scale?
Why will firms in most markets be located at or close to the bottom of the long-run average cost curve?