Production and costs are the primary building components on the supply side of the market. From the previous week we know that consumer behavior forms the basis for the demand curves. This week we will look at how production behavior by firms is behind the supply curve. A critical part of production decisions is profit. Many people think of profit in the terms of accounting profit, i.e., the difference between revenues from sales and the cost of production. However, when managers make production decisions they also look at economic profit that, unlike accounting profit, takes into consideration the costs of foregoing an investment in another activity (referred to as opportunity costs). For the first part of this week's discussion complete the following task by Wednesday and then respond to at least one of your classmates' posting by Sunday:
- Provide an example (preferably from an actual business operation) that demonstrates the differences in economic profit and accounting profit. You should include opportunity costs (explicit and implicit) in the comparison. Using your actual profit calculations explain why there is a difference in the bottom-line measured profits and why it is important to look at both.
When we talked about production and costs we need to recognize that managers face more decisions in the long run. Why? Because it is possible changes can occur in the combinations of inputs used in the production process. Because of the possibilities of these changes long run decisions are focused on minimizing the costs of production. An important consideration in minimizing these costs is the strategy of economies of scale defined as creating a lower unit cost by implementing a larger scale of production. This means that the average costs of production are lowered as the production is at larger output levels. For the second part of this discussion complete the following task by Friday and then respond to at least one of your classmates' posting by Sunday:
- Identify and discuss the primary factors that are necessary to achieve economies of scale.