U-SHAPED COST CURVES: The family of short-run cost curves consisting of average total cost, average variable cost, and marginal cost, all of which have U-shapes. They are U-shaped because each has high but falling cost at low quantities of output, which then reaches a minimum, then has rising cost at larger quantities of output. Although the average fixed cost curve is not U-shaped, it's occasionally included with the other three just for sake of completeness.

     See also | average total cost | average variable cost | marginal cost | average fixed cost | average total cost curve | average variable cost curve | marginal cost curve | average fixed cost curve | short-run production | stages of production | increasing marginal returns | decreasing marginal returns | law of diminishing marginal returns | total cost | total variable cost | total fixed cost |

U-SHAPED COST CURVES, AmosWEB GLOSS*arama, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2024. [Accessed: April 25, 2024].

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Oligopoly and monopolistic competition have some similarities, but also have a few important differences. Both are examples of imperfect competition on the market structure continuum between ideals of perfect competition and monopoly. However, oligopoly contains a small number of large firms and monopolistic competition contains a large number of small firms. The dividing line between oligopoly and monopolistic competition can be blurred due to the number of firms in the industry.

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Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time waiting for visits from door-to-door solicitors wanting to buy either pink cotton balls or a genuine down-filled comforter. Be on the lookout for the last item on a shelf.
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