Menu costs, Managerial Economics

Assignment Help:

Menu Costs 

Why do firms not change their prices very  frequently? Obviously, the costs of changing prices at  frequent intervals and in small amounts must be more  than the benefits obtained from such a change. Firms prefer to wait before they make price changes in relatively large amounts and in the mean time absorb the losses that they would  suffer by not changing prices. This of course presumes that the firms  have  some monopolistic price setting power and  the  losses referred to above include lower profits  than would have been possible  if prices had been raised, and not necessarily actual out-of-pocket losses.

It  is  easy to understand  this  behaviour  of monopolistically competitive firms through the example of restaurants competing with each other. The term  'menu costs' immediately becomes meaningful as the costs that would be  incurred  in changing the menu cards every time there  is a change in the prices of items on the menu. These printing costs are surely negligible, but  the more  important costs are in terms of the loss of customers that a firm would face if it subjects its clientele to the 'irritability'  of continuous, small changes in prices. The concept  of menu costs in  a modem economy  is  indeed broad.  It  is  also widely applicable, given  the proliferation of automatic dispensers (e.g., coffee machines) and pay  telephones that operate on coins.  

It  is easy to  imagine  the cost that would be  incurred by  the suppliers if these ubiquitous machines were to be adjusted every time a price change is effected. The firms would rather not change their prices.  It  is  this idea  of weighing  the  costs  of  changing prices against the benefits obtained  from  changing prices that  is  formalised  in  the Mankiw model that we consider below.    


Related Discussions:- Menu costs

Priciples, Principles of Managerial Economics points

Principles of Managerial Economics points

Fixed costs - short run cost function, Fixed costs are those that are indep...

Fixed costs are those that are independent of output. They should be paid even if firm produces no output. They wouldn't change even if output changes. They remain fixed whether ou

Decision tree analysis, I. A farmer – businessman is in a quandary as to wh...

I. A farmer – businessman is in a quandary as to what crop to plant in his land. He has the option to plant Crop A, Crop B, or Crop C. f the weather turns out to be good and the

Describe about theory of firm, Q. Describe about Theory of Firm? Theory...

Q. Describe about Theory of Firm? Theory of the firm is associated to comprehending how firms come into being, what are their objectives, how they act and enhance their perform

Examples of identity economics, Provide two examples of identity economics ...

Provide two examples of identity economics other than those given in the article

Eating a certain amount, Jeremy is an economics learner who loves hamburger...

Jeremy is an economics learner who loves hamburgers. He could eat any number of them for dinner, but he gets a really bad stomach ache after eating a certain amount. In fact, his u

Direct action, Direct Action Direct action in more than one from has be...

Direct Action Direct action in more than one from has been employed by the central banks either as an alternative to their discount rate policy or open market operations or tog

Show the empirical analysis, Q. Show the Empirical analysis? Empirical ...

Q. Show the Empirical analysis? Empirical analysis aimed at investigating nature of scale economies, degree of input complementarily orsubstitutability, or the nature and exten

Write Your Message!

Captcha
Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd