Reference no: EM132612763

Ch. 9: Businesses and the Costs of Production

1. Among the types of costs faced by a firm (short-run costs, fixed and variable, as well as long-run costs), how can technology help firms to lower their costs? What are some specific examples of how firms have used technology to lower costs

2. Businesses often decide between using automation and labor in production. An automotive environment may have high fixed costs and low variable costs, and an industry that utilizes manual labor for production will have low fixed costs and high variable costs. How has technology changed the balance between automation and labor? What type of industry benefits the most from technological innovation?

3. What is the difference between accounting costs and economic costs?

4. Why do economic costs include both explicit (revealed and expressed) costs and implicit (present but not obvious) costs?

5. What are the differences between fixed and variable costs and among total, average, and marginal costs?

Ch. 13: Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly

6. Give some examples of unethical behavior that occurred in business in recent years. Also address the question of how ethics differs from the law and how they also often overlap.

7. Why are monopolistic competitors only earning a normal profit in the long run?

8. Why does monopolistic competition deliver neither productive nor allocative efficiency?