Marginal functions are growth functions. That means they tell you how much something increases or decreases per unit. Marginal functions tell you whether it is profitable to increase production, and what level of revenue, cost or profit will follow.
Theory
Marginal income,
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refers to the change in income from increasing the production by one unit.
Marginal cost,
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refers to the change in cost from increasing the production by one unit.
Marginal profit,
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refers to the change in profit from increasing the production by one unit.
Example 1
For a given purse, Valentino has the income function
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and the cost function
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both in thousands of euros.
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The marginal cost is the derivative of the cost:
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The marginal profit can be found either by taking the derivative of the profit function or by using the formula above. In this case, the easier alternative is using the formula:
As there is no way to produce half a unit, you have to choose either
Example 2
You have the profit function
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If you have a production level of 52, is it profitable to increase the production to 53 units?
To answer this question, you need to figure out whether the profit will increase or decrease after another unit is produced.
Start by finding
As the answer is negative, the profit will decrease by 10 if you increase the production by one unit. You won’t want to increase production this time.