Production and Costs of the Firm Quiz

A  replaces unskilled labor with automated machinery.

B  retrains Joe the welder as a painter and Pat the painter as a welder.

C  buys extra machines for its workers to use.

D  allows fixed cost to become variable.

A  firms always make handsome profits.

B  costs fall as the size of the product is increased.

C  the government feels responsible for breaking up the firm.

D  costs per unit decline as output expands.

A  mortgage on the building

B  electricity

C  steel to produce refrigerators

D  worker bonuses

A  change in total cost resulting from the production of one more unit of output.

B  difference between total fixed cost and total variable cost.

C  difference between total cost and total expenditure.

D  change in total cost resulting from the purchase of one more unit of the variable input.

A  increasing returns to scale.

B  increasing costs per unit of output.

C  constant returns to scale.

D  decreasing returns to scale.

A  spreading fixed costs over larger outputs and increasing returns to the variable inputs.

B  rising total product.

C  falling fixed costs.

D  declining administrative costs as output increases.

A  there are increasing returns to scale in the airline industry.

B  airlines are experiencing decreasing returns to scale.

C  the airline industry has constant returns to scale.

D  the larger airlines are not profitable.

A  total revenue product.

B  output.

C  marginal physical product times output.

D  total consumer’s surplus.

A  is always zero.

B  increases as output increases.

C  remains constant even if the firm shuts down.

D  declines as output increases.

A  jet fuel

B  property taxes

C  rent of airport space

D  insurance

A  All of these are correct.

B  shows the lowest possible short-run AC corresponding to each output level.

C  is a composite of short-run AC curves.

D  depends on the firm’s planning horizon.

A  there is no economic reason to break up large firms that may have some control over the market.

B  many smaller firms would be less-efficient producers.

C  large firms are less-efficient producers.

D  large firms have a concentration of economic power.

A  it must have increasing returns to scale at low levels of production and decreasing returns to scale at high levels of production.

B  its fixed cost rises as output rises.

C  the firm can maximize its output by operating at the point of minimum long-run average cost.

D  it must have increasing returns to each input at low levels of production and decreasing returns to each input at high levels of production.

A  buy less of that input and more of the other input.

B  change its input mix so that the marginal physical product of the input whose price has risen falls and the marginal physical product of the other input rises.

C  reduce its output.

D  buy more of the higher priced input and less of the lower priced input.

A  marginal physical product of that input must be below its average physical product.

B  producer should reduce the use of that input.

C  producer should expand the use of that input.

D  price of the input will automatically rise in a free market.

A  how much profit will be made at each level of production.

B  how much the last input added to the total amount of production.

C  at what point to stop adding inputs to the production process.

D  how much the last input added to the total amount of revenue.

A  input quantity and output price.

B  output quantity and output price.

C  input quantity and input price.

D  output quantity and input price.

A  diminishing returns to labor.

B  increasing long-run average cost.

C  decreasing short-run average variable cost.

D  decreasing returns to scale.