TAILIEUCHUNG - Ten Principles of Economics - Part 27

Ten Principles of Economics - Part 27. Economics is the study of how society manages its scarce resources. In most societies, resources are allocated not by a single central planner but through the combined actions of millions of households and firms. Economists therefore study how people make decisions: how much they work, what they buy, how much they save, and how they invest their savings. Economists also study how people interact with one another. | CHAPTER 13 THE COSTS OF PRODUCTION 271 COSTS AS OPPORTUNITY COSTS When measuring costs at Hungry Helen s Cookie Factory or any other firm it is important to keep in mind one of the Ten Principles of Economics from Chapter 1 The cost of something is what you give up to get it. Recall that the opportunity cost of an item refers to all those things that must be forgone to acquire that item. When economists speak of a firm s cost of production they include all the opportunity costs of making its output of goods and services. A firm s opportunity costs of production are sometimes obvious and sometimes less so. When Helen pays 1 000 for flour that 1 000 is an opportunity cost because Helen can no longer use that 1 000 to buy something else. Similarly when Helen hires workers to make the cookies the wages she pays are part of the firm s costs. These are explicit costs. By contrast some of a firm s opportunity costs are implicit costs. Imagine that Helen is skilled with computers and could earn 100 per hour working as a programmer. For every hour that Helen works at her cookie factory she gives up 100 in income and this forgone income is also part of her costs. This distinction between explicit and implicit costs highlights an important difference between how economists and accountants analyze a business. Economists are interested in studying how firms make production and pricing decisions. Because these decisions are based on both explicit and implicit costs economists include both when measuring a firm s costs. By contrast accountants have the job of keeping track of the money that flows into and out of firms. As a result they measure the explicit costs but often ignore the implicit costs. The difference between economists and accountants is easy to see in the case of Hungry Helen s Cookie Factory. When Helen gives up the opportunity to earn money as a computer programmer her accountant will not count this as a cost of her cookie business. Because no money flows out of .

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