Academic Integrity: tutoring, explanations, and feedback — we don’t complete graded work or submit on a student’s behalf.

(TCO D) A software producer has fixed costs of $30,000 per month and her Total V

ID: 1173322 • Letter: #

Question

(TCO D)   A software producer has fixed costs of $30,000 per month and her Total Variable Costs (TVC) as a function of output Q are given below:

  Q                        TVC                           Price
  3,000               $ 5,000                          $5    
13,000                25,000                             4    
23,000                50,000                            3    
33,000                80,000                            2    
43,000                 120,000                          1     

(a.) (15 points) If software can only be produced in the quantities above, what should be the production level if the producer operates in a monopolistic competitive market where the price of software at each possible quantity is also listed above? Why? (Show all work.)

(b.) (15 points) What should be the production level if fixed costs rose to $50,000 per month? Explain.     

Explanation / Answer

Total revenue would be price times quantity: those amounts, in order, would be: 15,000; 52,000; 69,000; 66,000; and 43,000

Total cost would be TVC plus total fixed cost (18,000 in the first example); 35,000; 55,000; 80,000; 110,000; and 150,000

Profit would be total revenue minus total cost: -20,000; -3,000; -11,000; -44,000; and -107,000.

Since total profit is highest at the 3,000 level of production, that would be the production level. If fixed costs increased, that would not change the optimal production level. Fixed costs have no bearing on production decisions in the short run because they are sunk costs. The table above, I didn't need to include fixed costs, comparing total revenue with total variable costs would provide the answer you need. I only included it so that the total you are looking at, profit, would have a meaningful name.