Cost Curve

In economics, a cost curve is a graph of the costs of production as a function of total quantity produced. In a free market economy, productively efficient firms use these curves to find the optimal point of production (minimising cost), and profit maximizing firms can use them to decide output quantities to achieve those aims. There are various types of cost curves, all related to each other, including total and average cost curves, and marginal ("for each additional unit") cost curves, which are the equal to the differential of the total cost curves. Some are applicable to the short run, others to the long run.

Read more about Cost Curve:  Short-run Average Variable Cost Curve (SRAVC), Short-run Average Total Cost Curve (SRATC or SRAC), Long-run Average Cost Curve (LRAC), Short-run Marginal Cost Curve (SRMC), Long-run Marginal Cost Curve (LRMC), Graphing Cost Curves Together, Cost Curves and Production Functions, Relationship Between Different Curves, Relationship Between Short Run and Long Run Cost Curves, U-shaped Curves

Famous quotes containing the words cost and/or curve:

    One must always be aware, to notice—even though the cost of noticing is to become responsible.
    Thylias Moss, African American poet. As quoted in the Wall Street Journal (May 12, 1994)

    In philosophical inquiry, the human spirit, imitating the movement of the stars, must follow a curve which brings it back to its point of departure. To conclude is to close a circle.
    Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)