The possibility that a firm may earn losses raises a question: why can the firm not avoid losses by shutting down and not producing at all? The answer is that shutting down can reduce variable costs to zero, but in the short run, the firm has already committed to pay its fixed costs. As a result, if the firm produces a quantity of zero, it would still make losses because it would still need to pay for its fixed costs. Therefore when a firm is experiencing losses, it must face a question: should it continue producing or should it shut down?

As an example, consider the situation of the Yoga Center, which has signed a contract to rent space that costs $10,000 per month. If the firm decides to operate, its marginal costs for hiring yoga teachers is $15,000 for the month. If the firm shuts down, it must still pay the rent, but it would not need to hire labor. Table 1 shows three possible scenarios. In the first scenario, the Yoga Center does not have any clients, and therefore does not make any revenues, in which case it faces losses of $10,000 equal to the fixed costs. In the second scenario, the Yoga Center has clients that earn the center revenues of $12,000 for the month, but ultimately experiences losses of $13,000 due to having to hire yoga instructors to cover the classes. In the third scenario, the Yoga Center earns revenues of $20,000 for the month, but experiences losses of $5,000.

In all three cases, the Yoga Center loses money. In all three cases, when the rental contract expires in the long run, assuming revenues do not improve, the firm should exit this business. In the short run, though, the decision varies depending on the level of losses and whether the firm can cover its variable costs. In scenario 1, the center does not have any revenues, so hiring yoga teachers would increase variable costs and losses, so it should shut down and only incur its fixed costs. In scenario 2, the center’s losses are greater because it does not make enough revenue to cover its variable costs, so it should shut down immediately and only incur its fixed costs. If price is below the minimum average variable cost, the firm would lose less money by shuting down. In contrast, in scenario 3 the revenue that the center can earn is high enough that the losses diminish when it remains open, so the center should remain open in the short run.

Figure 1 illustrates the lesson that remaining open requires the price to exceed the firm’s average variable cost. When the firm is operating below the break-even point, where price equals average cost, it is operating at a loss so it faces two options: continue to produce and lose money or shutdown. Which option is preferable? The one that loses the least money is the best choice.

Let’s return to the raspberry farm example. At a price of $2.00 per pack, as Figure 1(a) illustrates, if the farm stays in operation it will produce at a level of 65 packs of raspberries, and it will make losses of $47.45 (as explained earlier). The alternative would be to shutdown and lose all the fixed costs of $62.00. Since losing $47.45 is preferable to losing $62.00, the profit maximizing (or in this case the loss minimizing) choice is to stay in operation. The key reason is because price is above average variable cost. This means that at the current price the farm can pay all its variable costs, and have some revenue left over to pay some of the fixed costs. So the loss represents the part of the fixed costs the farm can’t pay, which is less than the entire fixed costs. However, if the price declined to $1.50 per pack, as shown in Figure 1(b), and if the firm applied its rule of producing where P = MR = MC, it would produce a quantity of 58. This price is below average variable cost for this level of output. If the farmer cannot pay workers (the variable costs), then it has to shut down. At this price and output, total revenues would be $87 (quantity of 58 times price of $1.50) and total cost would be $162.34 (Fixed cost of $62 and variable cost of $100.34), for overall losses of $75.34. If the farm shuts down, it must pay only its fixed costs of $62, so shutting down is preferable to selling at a price of $1.50 per pack.

Figure 1. The Shutdown Point for the Raspberry Farm. In panel (a), the farm produces where MR = MC at Q = 65. It is making losses of $47.50, but price is above average variable cost, so it continues to operate. In panel (b), demand has fallen so that price ($1.50) is less than average variable cost ($1.72). If the farm continues to operate where MR = MC at Q = 58, it will lose $75.34. If it shuts down, it will owe the fixed costs of $62.  The farm will lose less by shutting down.

Looking at Table 2, if the price falls below about $1.72, the minimum average variable cost, the firm must shut down.

The intersection of the average variable cost curve and the marginal cost curve, which shows the price below which the firm would lack enough revenue to cover its variable costs, is called the shutdown point. If the perfectly competitive firm faces a market price above the shutdown point, then the firm is at least covering its average variable costs. At a price above the shutdown point, the firm is also making enough revenue to cover at least a portion of fixed costs, so it should limp ahead even if it is experiencing losses in the short run, since at least those losses will be smaller than if the firm shuts down immediately and incurs a loss equal to total fixed costs. However, if the firm is receiving a price below the price at the shutdown point, then the firm is not even covering its variable costs. In this case, staying open is making the firm’s losses larger, and it should shut down immediately. To summarize, if:

• price < minimum average variable cost, then firm shuts down
• price > minimum average variable cost, then firm stays in business

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Short-Run Outcomes for Perfectly Competitive Firms

The average cost and average variable cost curves divide the marginal cost curve into three segments, as Figure 2 shows. At the market price, which the perfectly competitive firm accepts as given, the profit-maximizing firm chooses the output level where price or marginal revenue, which are the same thing for a perfectly competitive firm, is equal to marginal cost: P = MR = MC.

Figure 2. Profit, Loss, Shutdown. We can divide marginal cost curve into three zones, based on where it is crossed by the average cost and average variable cost curves. We call the point where MC crosses AC the break even point. If the firm is operating where the market price is at a level higher than the break even point, then price will be greater than average cost and the firm is earning profits. If the price is exactly at the break even point, then the firm is making zero profits. If price falls in the zone between the shutdown point and the break even point, then the firm is making losses but will continue to operate in the short run, since it is covering its variable costs, and more if price is above the shutdown-point price. However, if price falls below the price at the shutdown point, then the firm will shut down immediately, since it is not even covering its variable costs.

First consider the upper zone, where prices are above the level where marginal cost (MC) crosses average cost (AC) at the zero profit point. At any price above that level, the firm will earn profits in the short run. If the price falls exactly on the break even point where the MC and AC curves cross, then the firm earns zero profits. If a price falls into the zone between the break even point, where MC crosses AC, and the shutdown point, where MC crosses AVC, the firm will be experiencing losses in the short run—but since the firm is more than covering its variable costs, the losses are smaller than if the firm shut down immediately. Finally, consider a price at or below the shutdown point where MC crosses AVC. At any price like this one, the firm will shut down immediately, because it cannot even cover its variable costs.