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Who Are You Calling Irrational? Marginal Costs, Variable Costs, and the Pricing Practices of Firms

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  • Russell Pittman

    (Director of Economic Research, Economic Analysis Group, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, and visiting professor, New Economic School, Moscow)

Abstract

Economists sometimes decry the persistence with which firms set prices above marginal cost and thus, according to the economists, fail to maximize profits. But it is the economists who have it wrong – first, because variable accounting costs are not always a good proxy for marginal economic costs, but more importantly because in an industry with U-shaped cost curves, a firm at a long-run sustainable equilibrium faces increasing marginal costs – i.e., a rising shadow price on some constrained input – i.e., in general, acost of capital. A corollary is that in such an industry the equilibrium mark-up over variable cost varies directly with capital intensity.

Suggested Citation

  • Russell Pittman, 2009. "Who Are You Calling Irrational? Marginal Costs, Variable Costs, and the Pricing Practices of Firms," EAG Discussions Papers 200903, Department of Justice, Antitrust Division.
    • Handle: RePEc:doj:eagpap:200903
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    File URL: https://www.justice.gov/atr/public/eag/248394.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    10. Boone, J. & van Ours, J.C. & van der Wiel, H.P., 2007. "How (Not) to Measure Competition," Discussion Paper 2007-32, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Russell Pittman, 2018. "Three Economist’s Tools for Antitrust Analysis: A Non-technical Introduction," Contributions to Economics, in: Boris Begović & Dušan V. Popović (ed.), Competition Authorities in South Eastern Europe, pages 155-172, Springer.
    2. Stefan Reichelstein & Anna Rohlfing-Bastian, 2014. "Levelized Product Cost: Concept and Decision Relevance," CESifo Working Paper Series 4590, CESifo.
    3. Stefan J. Reichelstein & Anshuman Sahoo, 2015. "Cost- and Price Dynamics of Solar PV Modules," CESifo Working Paper Series 5674, CESifo.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    market power; price; mark-up; marginal cost; variable cost;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B21 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Microeconomics
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • K21 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Antitrust Law
    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • L40 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - General

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