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QUASI-RENT: The payment that is received by a resource of production activity over the opportunity cost in the short run. The notion of quasi-rent is similar to economic rent, or economic profit, which is payment or revenue received over opportunity cost. The key difference is that quasi-rent is a short-run phenomenon. While quasi-rent is "extra" payment received in the short run, such payment might be essential to keep the resource or production activity in the long run. An example is the quasi-rent received due to the patent on a technological innovation. In the short run, the revenue received can be considered as profit in excess of the opportunity cost of production. However, in the long run this extra revenue motivates innovators to develop new technology. Without quasi-rent the innovations would not occur.
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                           VARIABLE COST: In general, cost that changes with changes in the quantity of output produced. More specifically, variable cost is combined with the adjectives "total" and "average" to indicate the overall level of variable cost or the per unit variable cost. Variable cost depends on the amount produced. If there is no production, then there is no variable cost. Variable cost is cost that depends on the quantity produced. If production is greater, then variable cost is greater. Variable cost is affected by short-run production principles, especially the law of diminishing marginal returns.Variable InputsVariable cost usually includes the cost of using variable inputs, assorted resources that are variable in the short run, especially labor and material inputs. However, in practice, variable cost includes any and all cost that varies with the quantity of output.For example, Waldo's TexMex Taco World operates in the short run with labor (the workers) as a variable input and capital (the restaurant and equipment) as a fixed input. In this case, the cost associated with labor is a prime candidate to be a variable cost. This includes hourly wage payments to the workers and any fringe benefits paid on behalf of the workers. While labor is usually isolated as THE variable input in the short run, most short-run production has other variable inputs, too. Waldo's TexMex Taco World undoubtedly has an assortment of other variable inputs, all of which are part of variable cost--including meat, lettuce, sour cream, and jalapenos that make up the tacos; paper napkins, packaging material, and plastic utensils that customers use when consuming the tacos; and electricity and other energy sources needed to prepare the tacos. When Waldo's make more tacos, they incur a greater cost for these inputs. Total and AverageThe two most common manifestations of variable cost are total variable cost and average variable cost.- Total Variable Cost: This is the total amount of variable cost incurred in the production of a good. It combines all variable opportunity cost.
- Average Variable Cost: This is the per unit variable cost, which is calculated by dividing total variable cost by the quantity of output produced.
Recommended Citation:VARIABLE COST, AmosWEB Encyclonomic WEB*pedia, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2025. [Accessed: July 7, 2025].
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YELLOW CHIPPEROON
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Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time searching for rummage sales looking to buy either a pair of red goulashes with shiny buckles or a handcrafted bird feeder. Be on the lookout for small children selling products door-to-door.
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Helping spur the U.S. industrial revolution, Thomas Edison patented nearly 1300 inventions, 300 of which came out of his Menlo Park "invention factory" during a four-year period.
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"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult. " -- Seneca, statesman, dramatist, philosopher
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BEA
Bureau of Economic Analisys
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