00:01
So to answer this question, let's think about the shutdown decision, right? so a firm has two options, right? so the first option is shutdown.
00:12
And if it shuts down, profit will be equal to minus the fixed cost, and the quantity will be equal to zero.
00:24
But if it operates, it can choose any quantity, right? because it can pick whatever quantity it wants to maximize profit, right? and profit would be equal to revenue minus costs, right? or revenue minus variable costs minus fixed cost.
00:58
So you see that these things are the same in both sides, right? so it comes down to whether this is greater than zero or not, right? it all is about is your revenue greater than your variable cost or not? if the revenue is greater than the variable cost, operating is going to be the superior choice, right? so let's look at these things, right? revenue can be rewritten as, right? revenue is equal to price times quantity.
01:30
And we could so we can rewrite this if we divide by quantity as this part would be equal to take the quantity out quantity outside of price minus average variable cost so it can also be rewritten as in terms of whether price minus average variable cost is true so if the firm is shutting down it must be that price is less than average variable cost for all levels of output, right? exactly.
02:05
A is the correct answer.
02:07
It's not b because if it's shutting down, it's not going to earn zero, right? this is not equal to zero...