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2.1 — Production, Specialization, Firms

ECON 306 • Microeconomic Analysis • Spring 2021

Ryan Safner
Assistant Professor of Economics
safner@hood.edu
ryansafner/microS21
microS21.classes.ryansafner.com

Producer Behavior

  • How do producers decide:

    • which products to produce
    • in what quantity
    • using which resources
    • and for what price?
  • Answers to these questions are building blocks for supply curves

The Basics of Production

  • Nearly all goods must be produced before we can exchange & consume them

  • Consumption is the destruction of value to gain utility

    • Consumption is the ultimate goal of all economic activity

The Basics of Production

  • Production is the creation of value, by transforming lower-valued goods (resources, inputs, etc) into higher-valued goods (outputs, consumer products, etc)

Production, Specialization, & Comparative Advantage

Production, Specialization, & Comparative Advantage

  • Consider a simple example — Robinson Crusoe stranded on a deserted island

  • Anything he wants to consume, he must first produce

Production, Specialization, & Comparative Advantage

  • Suppose on this tropical island, there is the potential to farm two goods:
    • Bananas
    • Coconuts

Production, Specialization, & Comparative Advantage

  • There are two plots of land, with different fertility
Max Bananas Max Coconuts
Plot A 10 5
Plot B 45 15

Production, Specialization, & Comparative Advantage

  • Two plots of land, with different fertility
Max Bananas Max Coconuts
Plot A 10 5
Plot B 45 15
  • For each plot, the (opportunity) cost of producing a marginal unit:
1 Banana 1 Coconut
Plot A 0.5C 2B
Plot B 0.33C 3B

In other words, the marginal cost!

Production, Specialization, & Comparative Advantage

  • Two plots of land, with different fertility
Max Bananas Max Coconuts
Plot A 10 5
Plot B 45 15
  • For each plot, the (opportunity) cost of producing a marginal unit:
1 Banana 1 Coconut
Plot A 0.5C 2B
Plot B 0.33C 3B

In other words, the marginal cost!

Production, Specialization, & Comparative Advantage

  • Production possibilities frontier (PPF) displaying possible combinations of outputs

  • Slope called marginal rate of transformation (MRT), or just call it marginal cost

Production, Specialization, & Comparative Advantage

  • Increasing marginal cost: to produce more of a good, opportunity cost rises as he cultivates more plots of land

  • Producing Bananas (x-axis), start with most productive plot first (B), then start cultivation on (A)

    • “Intensive margin”: producing more using first (most productive) plot
    • “Extensive margin”: bringing new plots into cultivation for production

Production, Specialization, & Comparative Advantage

  • Imagine now there are many various plots of land, differing in quality

  • So a more-fully curved PPF

Production, Specialization, & Comparative Advantage

  • Imagine now there are many various plots of land, differing in quality

  • So a more-fully curved PPF

  • Again, increasing marginal cost with more production (worse land)

    • Producing more Bananas, (AB), slope gets steeper
    • Producing more Coconuts, (AB), slope gets flatter

Production, Specialization, & Comparative Advantage

  • Based on his preferences, his productive & consumption optimum is point A (highest Indifference curve tangent to PPF)

  • At this point: MRTPPF slope=MRSI.C. slope=pbpcprice line

Trade

  • Now suppose he has the opportunity to trade with others

  • Current market exchange rate is the slope of darker purple dashed line

Trade

  • Now suppose he has the opportunity to trade with others

  • Current market exchange rate is the slope of darker purple dashed line

  • He will specialize in production of Bananas, produce more of them (AB) to trade to get coconuts

    • B is his productive optimum

Post-Trade Consumption

  • He will trade at the market prices (slope of dark purple dashed line)

Post-Trade Consumption

  • He will trade at the market prices (slope of dark purple dashed line)
    • Sell (export) his specialized good, Bananas

Post-Trade Consumption

  • He will trade at the market prices (slope of dark purple dashed line)
    • Sell (export) his specialized good, Bananas
    • Buy (import) from others, Coconuts

Post-Trade Consumption

  • He will trade at the market prices (slope of dark purple dashed line)

    • Sell (export) his specialized good, Bananas
    • Buy (import) from others, Coconuts
  • Allows him to reach higher indifference curve at point C, new consumption optimum

Takeaways

  1. Trade is good
    • Reaches higher indifference curve, beyond PPF!

Takeaways: Comparative Advantage

  1. Trade is good

  2. Specialization and Comparative advantage

    • specialize in producing whatever good you have the lower opportunity cost in
    • buy (import) everything else!
    • can be comparatively good at something, or comparatively bad at everything else!

Takeaways: Comparative Advantage

Takeaways: Comparative Advantage

The Division of Labor

Adam Smith

1723-1790

"The greatest improvement in the productive powers of labour, and the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which it is any where directed, or applied, seem to have been the effects of the division of labour," (Book I, Chapter 1).

Smith, Adam, 1776, An Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

Takeaways: Comparative Advantage

  1. Trade is good

  2. Specialization and Comparative advantage

    • specialize in producing whatever good you have the lower opportunity cost in
    • buy (import) everything else!
    • can be comparatively good at something, or comparatively bad at everything else!

Takeaways

  1. Trade is good
  2. Specialization and comparative advantage
  3. Price differences imply gains from trade
    • different price lines in “autarky” vs. with trade
    • the more different his price is vs. market, the better off he will be!

Takeaways

  1. Trade is good
  2. Specialization and comparative advantage
  3. Price differences imply gains from trade
  4. A theory of the firm
    • Productive optimum (B) is independent of preferences!
    • Any rational producer would make the same decision, regardless of preferences (or ownership structure)
      • sole-proprietor, partnership, corporation, non-profit, workers co-op, etc.

Takeaways

  1. Trade is good
  2. Specialization and comparative advantage
  3. Price differences imply gains from trade
  4. A theory of the firm
  5. Competitive firms produce where MC = MB
    • Point B:

MRTPPF slope=MRSI.C. slope=pbpcprice line

What Do Firms Do?

The Firm

  • In modern market economies, most production takes place in a legal organization known as the firm

  • It does not have to be this way, and for most of history it was not this way!

    • Craft guilds
    • Independent artisans
    • Independent contractors

The Firm

What Do Firms Do? I

  • We'll assume "the firm" is the agent to model:

  • So what do firms do?

  • How would we set up an optimization model:

  1. Choose: < some alternative >

  2. In order to maximize: < some objective >

  3. Subject to: < some constraints >

What Do Firms Do? II

  • Firms convert some goods to other goods:

What Do Firms Do? II

  • Firms convert some goods to other goods:

  • Inputs: x1,x2,,xn

    • Examples: worker efforts, warehouse space, electricity, loans, oil, cardboard, fertilizer, computers, software programs, etc

What Do Firms Do? II

  • Firms convert some goods to other goods:

  • Inputs: x1,x2,,xn

    • Examples: worker efforts, warehouse space, electricity, loans, oil, cardboard, fertilizer, computers, software programs, etc
  • Output: q

    • Examples: gas, cars, legal services, mobile apps, vegetables, consulting advice, financial reports, etc

What Do Firms Do? III

  • Technology or a production function: rate at which firm can convert specified inputs (x1,x2,,xn) into output (q) q=f(x1,x2,,xn)

Production Function as Recipe

The production function

The production algorithm

Factors of Production I

q=Af(t,l,k)

  • Economists typically classify inputs, called the “factors of production” (FOP):
Factor Owned By Earns
Land (t) Landowners Rent
Labor (l) Laborers Wages
Capital (k) Capitalists Interest
  • A: "total factor productivity" (ideas/knowledge/institutions)
  • and Entrepreneurs/Owners who earn Profit

Factors of Production II

q=f(l,k)

  • We will assume just two inputs: labor l and capital k
Factor Owned By Earns
Labor (l) Laborers Wages
Capital (k) Capitalists Interest

What Does a Firm Maximize?

  • We will assume firms maximize profit (π)

  • Not true for all firms

    • Examples: non-profits, charities, civic associations, government agencies, criminal organizations, etc
  • Even profit-seeking firms may also want to maximize additional things

    • Examples: goodwill, sustainability, social responsibility, etc

Profits Have a Bad Rap These Days

What is Profit?

  • In economics, profit is simply benefits minus (opportunity) costs

What is Profit?

  • In economics, profit is simply benefits minus (opportunity) costs

  • Suppose firm sells output q at price p

What is Profit?

  • In economics, profit is simply benefits minus (opportunity) costs

  • Suppose firm sells output q at price p

  • It can buy each input xi at an associated price pi

    • labor l at wage rate w
    • capital k at rental rate r

What is Profit?

  • In economics, profit is simply benefits minus (opportunity) costs

  • Suppose firm sells output q at price p

  • It can buy each input xi at an associated price pi

    • labor l at wage rate w
    • capital k at rental rate r
  • The profit of selling q units and using inputs l,k is:

Who Gets the Profits? I

π=pqrevenues(wl+rk)costs

Reminder from Macroeconomics: "The Circular Flow"

Who Gets the Profits? I

π=pqrevenues(wl+rk)costs

  • The firm's costs are all of the factor-owner's incomes!
    • Landowners, laborers, creditors are all paid rent, wages, and interest, respectively

Who Gets the Profits? I

π=pqrevenues(wl+rk)costs

  • Profits are the residual value leftover after paying all factors

  • Profits are income for the residual claimant(s) of the production process (i.e. owner(s) of a firm):

    • Entrepreneurs
    • Shareholders

Who Gets the Profits? II

π=pqrevenues(wl+rk)costs

  • Residual claimants have incentives to maximize firm's profits, as this maximizes their own income

  • Entrepreneurs and shareholders are the only participants in production that are not guaranteed an income!

    • Starting and owning a firm is inherently risky!

People Overestimate Profits

Source: American Enterprise Institute

Profits and Entrepreneurship: A Preview

  • In markets, production must face the profit test:

    • Is consumer's willingness to pay > opportunity cost of inputs?
  • Profits are an indication that value is being created for society

  • Losses are an indication that value is being destroyed for society

  • Survival in markets requires firms continually create value & earn profits

The Firm's Optimization Problem I

  • So what do firms do?
  1. Choose: < some alternative >

  2. In order to maximize: < profits >

  3. Subject to: < technology >

  • We've so far assumed they maximize profits and they are limited by their technology

The Firm's Optimization Problem II

  • What do firms choose? (Not an easy answer)

  • Prices?

    • Depends on the market the firm is operating in!
    • Study of industrial organization
  • Essential question: how competitive is a market? This will influence what firms (can) do

Industrial Organization: A Roadmap I

  • Begin with one extreme case: "perfect competition"

    • Firms can choose to sell as much q as they want
    • Firms are constrained to sell at the (exogenous) market price ˉp
  • Appropriate for settings with many firms, each small relative to market

Interlude

  • After we find firm's optimal decisions in this market (and have Exam 2), we will then finally look at market equilibrium

  • Put Supply and Demand together

Interlude

  • We've seen how consumers cause and respond to market changes

    • e.g. (Δpx, Δpy, Δm)
  • We're about to explore how producers cause and respond to market changes

  • Finally we can explain all of these market changes with Supply and Demand equilibrium models

  • Discuss how markets work, why they are good & efficient, and when they fail

Industrial Organization: A Roadmap II

  • Examine another extreme case: monopoly of a single seller

    • Appropriate for some markets
  • "Imperfect competition": models of monopolistic competition & oligopoly

    • In latter case, firms act strategically, so we will need game theory
  • Firms can choose both q & p to maximize π

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