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OPPORTUNITY COST: The highest valued alternative foregone in the pursuit of an activity. This is a hallmark of anything dealing with economics--and life for that matter--because any action that you take prevents you from doing something else. The ultimate source of opportunity cost is the pervasive problem of scarcity (unlimited wants and needs, but limited resources). Whenever limited resources are used to satisfy one want or need, there are an unlimited number of other wants and needs that remain unsatisfied. Herein lies the essence of opportunity cost. Doing one thing prevents doing another.
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                           VERY SHORT RUN, MICROECONOMICS: A production period of time in which at all inputs in the production process are fixed, meaning the quantity of output itself is fixed. Also termed market period, the very short run exists if the period is so short that no additional production is possible. In other words, the good has been produced, all that remains is to sell it. This is one of four production time periods used in the study of microeconomics. The other three are short run, long run, and very long run. The very short run is a production time period that is so short that a firm is unable to change the quantities of any input, that is, there are no variable inputs. With no variable inputs, the firm is unable to change the quantity of output. The primary task of the firm is to sell the output that has been produced.The best examples of the very short run market period come from the farming industry. Giving the length of a growing season, once crops are harvested, output is fixed, inputs are fixed, and the only task at hand is to sell the output in the market. Farmers cannot change the quantity of inputs after harvest to produce any more output. Depending on the particular crop, the market period for farming can last anywhere from a few months to a year. The market periods for other types of production have shorter or longer time frames. A newspaper, such as the Shady Valley Daily Gazette Journal Record, for example, prints up a stack of papers early in the morning that it sells to the news-hungry public throughout the day. When the presses stop running and the papers hit the news-stands, the output quantity does not change. The market period for newspapers is something less than a day.
Recommended Citation:VERY SHORT RUN, MICROECONOMICS, AmosWEB Encyclonomic WEB*pedia, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2019. [Accessed: December 16, 2019].
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Approximately three-fourths of the U.S. paper currency in circular contains traces of cocaine.
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"If things are not going well with you, begin your effort at correcting the situation by carefully examining the service you are rendering, and especially the spirit in which you are rendering it." -- Roger Babson, statistician and columnist
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EFTA
European Free Trade Association
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