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Marginal revenue

 
Sci-Tech Dictionary: marginal revenue
 
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(′mär·jən·əl ′rev·ə′nü)

(industrial engineering) The extra revenue achieved by selling an extra unit of output.

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Financial & Investment Dictionary: Marginal Revenue
 
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Change in total revenue caused by one additional unit of output. It is calculated by determining the difference between the total revenues produced before and after a one-unit increase in the rate of production. As long as the price of a product is constant, price and marginal revenue are the same; for example, if baseball bats are being sold at a constant price of $10 apiece, a one-unit increase in sales (one baseball bat) translates into an increase in total revenue of $10. But it is often the case that additional output can be sold only if the price is reduced, and that leads to a consideration of Marginal Cost-the added cost of producing one more unit. Further production is not advisable when marginal cost exceeds marginal revenue since to do so would result in a loss. Conversely, whenever marginal revenue exceeds marginal cost, it is advisable to produce an additional unit. Profits are maximized at the rate of output where marginal revenue equals marginal cost.

 
Wikipedia: Marginal revenue
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In microeconomics, Marginal Revenue (MR) is the extra revenue that an additional unit of product will bring. It is the additional income from selling one more unit of a good; sometimes equal to price.[1] It can also be described as the change in total revenue/change in number of units sold.

More formally, marginal revenue is equal to the change in total revenue over the change in quantity when the change in quantity is equal to one unit (or the change in output in the bracket where the change in revenue has occurred)

This can also be represented as a derivative. (Total revenue) = (Price Demanded) times (Quantity) or TR=P \cdot Q. Thus, by the product rule:

MR=\frac{dTR}{dQ}=\frac{dP}{dQ} \cdot Q + \frac{dQ}{dQ} \cdot P=P + Q \cdot \frac{dP}{dQ}.

For a firm facing perfectly competitive markets, price does not change with quantity sold (\frac{dP}{dQ}=0), so marginal revenue is equal to price. For a monopoly, the price received will decline with quantity sold (\frac{dP}{dQ}<0), so marginal revenue is less than price. This means that the profit-maximizing quantity, for which marginal revenue is equal to marginal cost will be lower for a monopoly than for a competitive firm, while the profit-maximizing price will be higher. When marginal revenue is positive, Price elasticity of demand [PED] is elastic, and when it is negative, PED is inelastic. When marginal revenue is equal to zero, price elasticity of demand is equal to -1.

References

  1. ^ Sullivan, arthur; Steven M. Sheffrin (2003). Economics: Principles in action. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458: Pearson Prentice Hall. pp. 112. ISBN 0-13-063085-3. http://www.pearsonschool.com/index.cfm?locator=PSZ3R9&PMDbSiteId=2781&PMDbSolutionId=6724&PMDbCategoryId=&PMDbProgramId=12881&level=4. 

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This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Sci-Tech Dictionary. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms. Copyright © 2003, 1994, 1989, 1984, 1978, 1976, 1974 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Financial & Investment Dictionary. Dictionary of Finance and Investment Terms. Copyright © 2006 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Marginal revenue".  Read more

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