Cost and Industry Structure

The Structure of Costs in the Short Run

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

  • Analyze short-run costs as influenced by total cost, fixed cost, variable cost, marginal cost, and average cost.
  • Calculate average profit
  • Evaluate patterns of costs to determine potential profit

The cost of producing a firm's output depends on how much labor and physical capital the firm uses. A list of the costs involved in producing cars will look very different from the costs involved in producing computer software or haircuts or fast-food meals. However, the cost structure of all firms can be broken down into some common underlying patterns. When a firm looks at its total costs of production in the short run, a useful starting point is to divide total costs into two categories: fixed costs that cannot be changed in the short run and variable costs that can be changed.