Introduction
to Economics ECO401
VU
Lesson
5.5
BACKGROUND
TO SUPPLY/COSTS
(CONTINUED..............)
REVENUES
Revenues
are the sale proceeds
that accrue to a firm when
it sells the goods it
produces; in
other
words they are the
cash inflows that the
firm received by way of
selling its products.
Total
Revenue (TR), Average
Revenue (AR) and Marginal
Revenue (MR):
Total
revenue (TR), average
revenue (AR) and marginal
revenue (MR) concepts apply
in the
same
way as they did to TC, AC
and MC.
i.
TR = P x Q.
ii.
AR = TR/Q;
AR
is almost always equal to
price unless the firm is
engaged in
price
discrimination.
iii.
MR = ΔTR/ΔQ.
Price-taker
and Price-maker
Firm:
A
firm that does not
have the ability to
influence market price is a
price-taker.
A
firm that influences the
market price by how much it
produces can be called a
price-maker or
price-setter.
For
a price taker, AR=MR=P.
In this case TR is a straight
line from the origin.
The demand (or
AR)
curve the firm faces is a
horizontal line.
A
price maker faces a downward
sloping demand (or AR)
curve i.e., it can't sell
more without
reducing
price. But this means
lowering the price for
all units, not just
the extra units it
hopes
to
sell.
The
demand faced by a price
maker is elastic, when MR is
positive and therefore
TR
increases
due to a decrease in price.
Demand is inelastic when MR is
negative, and
therefore
TR
falls due to a decrease in
price.
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