Productivity and Costs

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Session Overview

Everything has a cost, and that is true for firms as well as consumers. When firms produce goods, they incur costs that vary depending on how much they are producing. In this lecture, we will analyze firms' cost functions.

Building factory infrastructure is a producer cost. Image courtesy of AndreasPraefcke on Wikipedia.

Keywords: Productivity; food production; costs; marginal costs; long run costs; short run costs.

Session Activities

Readings

Before watching the lecture video, read the course textbook for an introduction to the material covered in this session:

[R&T] Chapter 8, "Production and Cost."
[Perloff] Chapter 7, "Costs." (optional)

Lecture Videos

View Full Video
- Lecture 9: Production Theory (00:47:30)
- Transcript - PDF (English-US)
- Caption - SRT (English-US)
View by Chapter
- Productivity (0:15:27)
- Introduction to Costs and Short Run Costs (0:08:45)
- Long Run Costs (0:15:10)
- Long Run Expansion Path (0:04:03)

Resources

Graphs and Figures (PDF)

Check Yourself

Concept Quiz

This concept quiz covers key vocabulary terms and also tests your intuitive understanding of the material covered in this session. Complete this quiz before moving on to the next session to make sure you understand the concepts required to solve the mathematical and graphical problems that are the basis of this course.

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