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What are Explicit Costs?
We can distinguish between two types of cost: explicit and implicit. Explicit costs are out-of-pocket costs, that is, actual payments. Wages that a firm pays its employees or rent that a firm pays for its office are explicit costs. Implicit costs are more subtle, but just as important. They represent the opportunity cost of using resources that the firm already owns. Often for small businesses, they are resources that the owners contribute. For example, working in the business while not earning a formal salary, or using the ground floor of a home as a retail store are both implicit costs. Implicit costs also include the depreciation of goods, materials, and equipment that are necessary for a company to operate. (See the Work It Out feature for an extended example.)
Relate Topics
- Theory of the Firm
- Capital Formation
- Rent Seeking
- Structure Conduct Performance Model
- Integration
- Co-Insurance Effect
- Conglomerates
- Cost vs Profit Center
- Accelerator Theory
- Market Structure
- Fixed Cost vs Variable Cost
- Actual vs Implicit Costs
- Explicit Costs
- True Cost Economics
- Accounting Profit
- Economic Profit
- What are Factors of Production?
- Factor Income
- Production Function
- Fixed and Variable Inputs
- Short-Run and Long-Run Production
- Short Run
- Total Product
- Marginal Product
- Value of Marginal Product
- Law of Marginal Diminishing Product
- Production Function
- Production Possibilities Frontier
- Capital
- Labor Theory of Value
- How the Production Function Estimates Inputs
- Factor Payment
- Economic Rent
- Cost Function
- Incremental Cost
- Marginal Input Cost
- Fixed and Variable Costs
- Diminishing Marginal Productivity
- Costs Relate to Diminishing Marginal Productivity
- Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns
- Average Total Cost
- Average Variable Cost
- Marginal Cost
- Average Profit or Profit Margin
- Accounting Profit
- Economic Profit
- Normal Profit
- Short and Long-Run Production
- Cost Curves
- Long-Run Average Cost (LRAC)
- Production Technologies
- Economies of Scope
- Economies of Scale
- Diseconomies of Scale
- Minimum Efficient Scale
- Increasing, Constant, and Decreasing Returns to Scale
- Shape of the Average Long-Run and Short-Run Cost Curves
- Returns to Scale
- Diseconomies of Scale
- Long-Run Average Cost Curve Affect Industry Competitors
- Technology Shifts the Long-Run Average Cost Curve
- Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns