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MARGINAL COST CURVE: A curve that graphically represents the relation between marginal cost incurred by a firm in the short-run product of a good or service and the quantity of output produced. This curve is constructed to capture the relation between marginal cost and the level of output, holding other variables, like technology and resource prices, constant. The marginal cost curve is U-shaped. Marginal cost is relatively high at small quantities of output, then as production increases, declines, reaches a minimum value, then rises. This shape of the marginal cost curve is directly attributable to increasing, then decreasing marginal returns (and the law of diminishing marginal returns).
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                           ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: The process of investigating economic phenomena in a systematic manner. In one sense, this is the heart and soul of the economic discipline. While economists spend an ample time identifying economic concepts, the end result of this discovery process is usually aimed at combining these concepts in such a way as to evaluate or analyze alternative consequences. For example, economists seek to understand the notions of demand and supply. But this is not the end result of their analytical quest. They are more interested in analyzing how a change in buyers' income, as a demand determinant, affects the demand for a good like gasoline and subsequently its price. Or how technological improvements, as a supply determinant, affects the supply of a good like computers and subsequently the quantity sold.One important aspect of economic analysis is that it is typically performed "at the margin," meaning that economists are usually more concerned with small, incremental changes than with overall totals. For example, economists are more interested in how many additional computers are sold because of the technological advance than in the total sales of computers. The reason for this "marginal" obsession is that consumers, producers, and other economic decision-makers usually make choices "at the margin." Consumers decide whether or not to buy another hot fudge sundae today (having eaten dozens this year). They do not decide in January how many to purchase for the entire year. They decide each hot fudge sundae purchase one at a time. And so it goes for many economic decisions.
Recommended Citation:ECONOMIC ANALYSIS, AmosWEB Encyclonomic WEB*pedia, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2024. [Accessed: October 11, 2024].
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Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time waiting for visits from door-to-door solicitors looking to buy either storage boxes for your family photos or a large, stuffed giraffe. Be on the lookout for infected paper cuts.
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Sixty percent of big-firm executives said the cover letter is as important or more important than the resume itself when you're looking for a new job
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"Life is not a 'brief candle.' It is a splendid torch that I want to make burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations. " -- Bernard Shaw, journalist
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ACIR
Advisory Council on Intergovernmental Relations
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