Answer:
1. Profit maximization using total cost and total revenue curves Suppose Juanita runs a small business that manufactures teddy bears. Assume that the market for teddy bears is a competitive market, and the market price is $20 per teddy bear. The following graph shows Juanita's total cost curve. Use the blue points (circle symbol) to plot total revenue and the green points (triangle symbol) to plot profit for teddy bears quantities zero through seven (inclusive) that Juanita produces. Total Revenue Total Cost Profit TOTAL COST AND REVENUE (Dollars) 0 1 2 6 7 8 3 4 5 QUANTITY (Teddy bears) Calculate Juanita's marginal revenue and marginal cost for the first seven teddy bears she produces, and plot them on the following graph. Use the blue points (circle symbol) to plot marginal revenue and the orange points (square symbol) to plot marginal cost at each quantity.
Marginal Revenue Marginal Cost COSTS AND REVENUE (Dollars per teddy bear) 0 1 2 6 7 8 3 4 5 QUANTITY (Teddy bears) Juanita's profit is maximized when she produces teddy bears. When she does this, the marginal cost of the last teddy bear she produces is , which is than the price Juanita receives for each teddy bear she sells. The marginal cost of producing an additional teddy bear (that is, one more teddy bear than would maximize her profit) is $ , which is than the price Juanita receives for each teddy bear she sells. Therefore, Juanita's profit-maximizing quantity corresponds to the intersection of the curves. Because Juanita is a price taker, this last condition can also be written as
