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A firm has a fixed production cost of \(5000 and a constant marginal cost of production of \)500 per unit produced.

  1. What is the firm’s total cost function? Average cost?

  2. If the firm wanted to minimize the average total cost, would it choose to be very large or very small? Explain.

Short Answer

Expert verified
  1. The total cost function is 5000 + 500Q, and the average cost function is 5000Q+500.

  2. The firm will choose to be very large because a large output will minimize the average total cost to $500.

Step by step solution

01

Total cost and average cost function

The total cost function is the fixed cost plus variable cost.

The total variable cost is the product of variable cost per unit (marginal cost) and the total number of units.

Suppose the total units are Q. The total variable cost is:

TVC = MC × Q

TVC = $500Q

The total cost function is:

Total Cost = Total Fixed Cost + Total Variable Cost

Total Cost = 5000 + 500Q

The following formula gives the average cost function:

ATC=TCQATC=5000+500QQATC=5000Q+500

02

Change in output for a minimum average total cost

The total output has to be as maximum as possible to minimize the total cost.The maximum output will reduce the average fixed cost equal to zero.A negligible average fixed cost will result in the average total cost equal to 500, that is, the marginal cost.

Thus, the firm will choose to be maximum to minimize the average total cost.

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