2. What is Cost? Anything incurred during the production of the good or service to get the output into the hands of the customer. An amount paid or required in payment for a purchase. Note Controlling costs is essential to Business Success. It is important to point out that production involves cost.
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4. Cost Concept: Economic Costs Private vs. Social Cost Private – Are expenses shouldered by individual producers. Ex. Rent and Cost of Material Social – Additional Cost are involved that are not paid by the producers but are Bourne by the society. Ex. Cement for Highways Explicit vs. Implicit Cost Explicit – consist of actual payments made by the firms for resources bought or hired Implicit – Cost of Self owned or Self employed resources. Total Fixed vs. Total Variable Cost – Short-run Fixed – Resources whose quantity cannot be readily be changed for short run. (Salaries, Rent, Insurance, Maintenance) Variable – Can be readily changed when output is increased in short run. (Wages of Laborers, Cost of Raw Materials and Transportation)
8. Marginal costs(MC) – The cost of producing an extra unit of output. MC = Change in TC / Change in Q Total Cost (TC) – Composed of total Fixed Cost and Total variable Cost. TC = FC + VC Average Fixed Cost (AFC) – Decreases continuously as output increases. The Greater Output the Smaller the AFC. Due to fixed cost that is spread to more output levels. AFC = FC/Q Average Variable Cost (AVC) – Refers to the variable costs per unit of output produced by the firms. AVC = VC/Q Average Cost (AC) – Obtained by Dividing TC by Level of Output, it also obtained by adding the sum of AFC and AVC. AC = TC/Q or AC = AFC + AVC
9. SUMMARY Economic costs are incurred in producing output. These Cost can be private or social, explicit or implicit, fixed or variable. In the short-run, firms pays both fixed and variable costs. Thus, total cost is the sum of total fixed cost and total variable cost. Fixed costs are part of the total cost and do not depend on output. Variable cost are dependent on the output. When AC and AVC are falling, MC is below them. When AC and AVC are rising, MC is above them.