Saturday, December 1, 2007
Characterizing Optimal Output for the Firm
Excel Spreadsheet
Maximizing Producer Surplus
First Order Condition: Price = MC
Second Order Condition: MC is rising
Producer Surplus is Non-negative: Price greater than or equal to minimum AVC.
Optional - About the Price Taking Assumption for Perfectly Competitive Firms
Here is another short movie making the observation that commodity markets best exemplify the assumptions of perfect competition.
Optional - Data on Firm Size
Here is a short movie about Census data on firm size. The movie is found on a new page, rather than being embedded in the blog. To return to the blog hit the back button on your browser when you are done viewing the movie.
You can find the Census Bureau page itself here
http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/smallbus.html.
Again, hit the back button when you are done to return to the blog.
You can find the Census Bureau page itself here
http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/smallbus.html.
Again, hit the back button when you are done to return to the blog.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Cost Tables
Filling out cost table knowing marginal (incremental) cost and values at low levels of output.
Cost Curves 2
Explaing the shape of the curves.
Division of Labor
Congestion Effects
Indivisible inputs
Cost Curves 1
Excel File
This video ties Total Variable Cost together with Average Variable Cost and Marginal Cost.
This video ties Total Variable Cost together with Average Variable Cost and Marginal Cost.
Various Cost Concepts
Fixed Cost - a cost that does not vary with output.
Sunk Cost - a cost that once incurred can't be recovered.
Specific Assets - Assets that are tooled for a particular purpose. The resale value of these assets are low relative to the install cost because they must be re-tooled for their next use. Specific assets are one explanation for sunk costs.
Viewing Offline/Offering Comments
The content for this presentation was designed to be viewed online with this blog as an organizer. In the main blog area the posts are in reverse chronological order. Either read them there starting at the bottom or use the navigation in the archive to go to the next post.
I know some of you prefer to have access to this content off line, so you can view it while you are commuting. It won't be quite the same that way, but I've made one big zip file of all the content that was created. You can also save the main blog page as a Web page to get the text content that is provided therein.
Placeholder for link to zip file.
Here are some tips for using the content offline.
a) .wmv movies (these are the talking head videos) These were recorded at 640x480 resolution because Google Video compresses them and that produces a better result than recording originally at 320x240. But they are better viewed in the smaller window. So simply resize your windows media player to a size that looks good to you and view it that way. You might very well find that you just listen to the audio and don't watch the talking head. That's fine.
b) .swf movies made with Jing (these are the screen capture movies) If you double click on them to launch them Windows will say it doesn't recognize the file. The trick is to open a browser and then open the file from within the browser. It should play fine.
One reason to chunk the content into various posts is so you can pose questions or give your opinions in a space where it is relevant to do that. Anonymous comments have been enabled for the blog - it was the easiest approach for now. If you do make a post of this sort please sign with either first name only or first name and last initial. I will monitor the blog daily and make responses to what I read from you. I may do that either in the comment area, or if there is enough discussion I will make a new post in the blog in response to the comments.
I know some of you prefer to have access to this content off line, so you can view it while you are commuting. It won't be quite the same that way, but I've made one big zip file of all the content that was created. You can also save the main blog page as a Web page to get the text content that is provided therein.
Placeholder for link to zip file.
Here are some tips for using the content offline.
a) .wmv movies (these are the talking head videos) These were recorded at 640x480 resolution because Google Video compresses them and that produces a better result than recording originally at 320x240. But they are better viewed in the smaller window. So simply resize your windows media player to a size that looks good to you and view it that way. You might very well find that you just listen to the audio and don't watch the talking head. That's fine.
b) .swf movies made with Jing (these are the screen capture movies) If you double click on them to launch them Windows will say it doesn't recognize the file. The trick is to open a browser and then open the file from within the browser. It should play fine.
One reason to chunk the content into various posts is so you can pose questions or give your opinions in a space where it is relevant to do that. Anonymous comments have been enabled for the blog - it was the easiest approach for now. If you do make a post of this sort please sign with either first name only or first name and last initial. I will monitor the blog daily and make responses to what I read from you. I may do that either in the comment area, or if there is enough discussion I will make a new post in the blog in response to the comments.
Origins
Newshour interview with P.J. O'Rourke about Adam Smith. (Since this link goes outside the blog, when done with it hit the back button to return to the blog.)
Introduction
If you'd like to keep learn about some of my non-economics work, I have a blog about learning technology that showcases my current thinking.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
An alternative to the second test
This uses iframes. Also, I changed the config file so it wouldn't autostart.
This post uses IFrames instead of embed
Since so far the two talking heads in dialog is best captured with Adobe connect, to show in the blog we need to use IFrames. It is functional but requires more jiggling of the code than embed does.
Suggestions for Writing Comments
Feel free to pose a question based on the post itself, other comments that have preceded yours, or on some outside material that you believe is related. Responding to the questions of others, either by echoing that question (and then adding something further that advances the discussion), giving an answer, or by making a related comment is also very good. And providing an opinion about the post or about real world issues that relate to the post is perfectly fine.
In other words, if you have something to say that is related to the post, please do so. The only thing that is off limits are comments entirely orthogonal to subject at hand.
Regarding length, remember that brevity is the soul of wit, but don't be so terse that others struggle to get your meaning.
In other words, if you have something to say that is related to the post, please do so. The only thing that is off limits are comments entirely orthogonal to subject at hand.
Regarding length, remember that brevity is the soul of wit, but don't be so terse that others struggle to get your meaning.
Your Privacy and Comments to Posts
Dear students in my class:
This blog is publicly available. I'm doing it that way rather than have something which requires a login because it is an experiment that I'd like others in the College to consider and making it public is the easiest way to get them to do that. And because I don't want to require you to get a Gmail account and further don't want to deal with the hassle of making you a member of the blog, I'm leaving the comments open to anyone, whether in the class or not. It's easier that way.
If you'd like to comment on one of the posts, please do so as follows.
(a) If you have Gmail and don't mind identifying yourself to the rest of the world, please do so.
(b) If you'd like to protect your identity more, can you sign your comment via first and last initial, or just first name, if that is sufficient to identify you within the class, or first name and last initial.
With this I hope to achieve the right balance between making it friendly between us and respecting your privacy.
L.A.
This blog is publicly available. I'm doing it that way rather than have something which requires a login because it is an experiment that I'd like others in the College to consider and making it public is the easiest way to get them to do that. And because I don't want to require you to get a Gmail account and further don't want to deal with the hassle of making you a member of the blog, I'm leaving the comments open to anyone, whether in the class or not. It's easier that way.
If you'd like to comment on one of the posts, please do so as follows.
(a) If you have Gmail and don't mind identifying yourself to the rest of the world, please do so.
(b) If you'd like to protect your identity more, can you sign your comment via first and last initial, or just first name, if that is sufficient to identify you within the class, or first name and last initial.
With this I hope to achieve the right balance between making it friendly between us and respecting your privacy.
L.A.
Navigation & Post Titles
Note that in the sidebar the links to the current month's archive appear without having to click anything. If you use effective titles, then your students should be able to find things fairly quickly, at least within the month of the appearance of the presentation. (Later they can go back to the archive, but they will have to make some clicks to find things. They can also use search if you make a lot of posts.)
Monday, November 12, 2007
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