1. Key Economic Concepts
Opportunity cost
Efficiency
Marginal analysis

2. Opportunity Cost
“The value of forgone benefit which could be obtained from a resource in its next-best alternative use.”

3. An Illustration of Opportunity Cost
Possibilities for Health Department Expenditure in a Year

4. Implications of Opportunity Cost
1 Deciding to do A implies deciding not to do B, ie value of benefits from A>B.
2 Cost can be incurred without £ expenditure.
3 Value not necessarily determined by “the market”.

5. Efficiency Efficiency = maximising benefit for resources used
Technical = meeting a given objective at Efficiency least cost
Allocative = producing the pattern of Efficiency output that best satisfies the pattern of “consumer wants”

6. ‘Marginal’ Analysis
Efficiency is achieved only by producing/ consuming something to the point where the (opportunity) cost of the last unit is no greater than the benefit derived from that unit.
Requires assessment of relative costs and benefits of each marginal addition or reduction in production/consumption

7. Example of Marginal Analysis
Two interventions we can allocate our budget to - A and B
How do we allocate this budget to maximise benefits?
Allocate until MBA = MBB. As cost is ‘opportunity cost’ this implies MCA = MBA

8. The Margin and the Consumer - Diminishing Marginal Utility
Utility/Benefit
13.2 13 12 10 MB
No Mars Bars

9. The Margin and the Producer - Cost Functions
Fixed Costs = Do not vary in short term Cost incurred at zero production
Variable Costs = Vary with output at constant rate
Total Cost = Sum of fixed and variable costs
Average Cost = Total cost  no of units of output
Marginal Cost = Additional cost of producing one extra unit of output

10. The Margin and the Producer - Average vs Marginal CostMC AC Qm
No of Mars Bars

11. Importance of Marginal Cost - Case of Detecting Colon Cancer

12. MC = MB: An Example
Costs and Benefits of Lung Transplantation

13. Marginal Analysis as a Concept
Often marginal changes, especially in benefits, difficult to calculate
But, it is thinking behind marginal analysis which is important rather than numbers