aleveleconomics基础讲义 经济学 高等教育 教育专区.pptVIP

Long-run situation ? All factors of production are variable. – there is time for the firm to build a new factory – to install new machines, to use different production techniques, – to combine inputs in whatever proportion and quantities it chooses; ? the firm will need to decide about the scale of its operation and the production techniques that it uses; ? these decisions will affect production costs so it is important to get these decisions right. Relation between LRAC and SRAC Curves ● A firm with just one factory and faces SRAC curve (following diagrams); ● In the long-run it can build more factories and experiences economies of scale due to administrative savings, each successive factory will allow it to produce with a new lower SRAC curve; ● Thus with 2 factories it will have curve SRAC 2 and with three then SRAC 3, and so on; ● Each SRAC curve corresponds to a particular amount of the factor that is fixed in the short-run (in this case the factory); ● There are many SRAC curves as many different factories of different sizes or extensions to existing one could be made. ● The LRAC curve is an ENVELOPE CURVE C o s t s Output O Examples of short-run average cost curves SRAC 1 SRAC 2 SRAC 3 SRAC 4 SRAC 5 Constructing a Long-run Average Cost Curve from Short-run Average Cost Curves LRAC C o s t s Output O SRAC 5 SRAC 4 SRAC 3 SRAC 2 SRAC 1 Constructing a Long-run Average Cost Curve from Short-run Average Cost Curves Scales of production ? The long-run average cost curve is U -shaped. ? This reflects returns to scale – three types are recognised: – Economies of scale ( LRAC falls as output rises) – Constant returns to scale – Diseconomies of scale ( LRAC rises as output rises). Scales of production Economies of scale ? A situation in which the long-run average cost curve declines as the firm increases output ? Sources of economies of scale: – Specialisation and Division of Labour – Greater efficiency of larger machines (eg combine harves