How Are the Marginal Revenue and Demand Curves Calculated? (2024)

How to Calculate Them and to Represent Them Graphically

How Are the Marginal Revenue and Demand Curves Calculated? (1)

By

Jodi Beggs

Economics Expert

  • Ph.D., Business Economics, Harvard University
  • M.A., Economics, Harvard University
  • B.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Jodi Beggs, Ph.D., is an economist and data scientist. She teaches economics at Harvard and serves as a subject-matter expert for media outlets including Reuters, BBC, and Slate.

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Updated on November 11, 2018

Marginal revenue is the additional revenue that a producer receives from selling one more unit of the good that he produces. Because profit maximization happens at the quantity where marginal revenue equalsmarginal cost, it's important not only to understand how to calculate marginal revenue but also how to represent it graphically:

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Demand Curve

How Are the Marginal Revenue and Demand Curves Calculated? (3)

The demand curveshows the quantity of an item that consumers in a market are willing and able to buy at each price point.

The demand curve is important in understanding marginal revenue because it shows how much a producer has to lower his priceto sell one more of an item. Specifically, the steeper the demand curve is, the more a producer must lower his price to increase the amount that consumers are willing and able to buy, and vice versa.

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Marginal Revenue Curve versus Demand Curve

How Are the Marginal Revenue and Demand Curves Calculated? (4)

Graphically, the marginal revenue curve is always below the demand curve when the demand curve is downward sloping because, when a producer has to lower his price to sell more of an item, marginal revenue is less than price.

In the case of straight-line demand curves, the marginal revenue curve has the same intercept on the P axis as the demand curve but is twice as steep, as illustrated in this diagram.

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Algebra of Marginal Revenue

How Are the Marginal Revenue and Demand Curves Calculated? (5)

Because marginal revenue is the derivative of total revenue, we can construct the marginal revenue curve by calculating total revenue as a function of quantity and then taking the derivative. To calculate total revenue, we start by solving the demand curve for price rather than quantity (this formulation is referred to as the inverse demand curve) and then plugging that into the total revenue formula, as done in this example.

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Marginal Revenue Is the Derivative of Total Revenue

How Are the Marginal Revenue and Demand Curves Calculated? (6)

As stated before, marginal revenue is then calculated by taking the derivative of total revenue with respect to quantity, as shown here.

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Marginal Revenue Curve versus Demand Curve

How Are the Marginal Revenue and Demand Curves Calculated? (7)

When we compare this example inverse demand curve (top) and the resulting marginal revenue curve (bottom), we notice that the constant is the same in both equations, but the coefficient on Q is twice as large in the marginal revenue equation as it is in the demand equation.

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Marginal Revenue Curve versus Demand Curve Graphically

How Are the Marginal Revenue and Demand Curves Calculated? (8)

When we look at the marginal revenue curve versus the demand curve graphically, we notice that both curves have the same intercept on the P axis, because they have the same constant, and the marginal revenue curve is twice as steep as the demand curve, because the coefficient on Q is twice as large in the marginal revenue curve. Notice also that, because the marginal revenue curve is twice as steep, it intersects the Q axis at a quantity that is half as large as the Q-axis intercept on the demand curve (20 versus 40 in this example).

Understanding marginal revenue both algebraically and graphically is important, because marginal revenue is one side of the profit-maximization calculation.

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Special Case of Demand and Marginal Revenue Curves

How Are the Marginal Revenue and Demand Curves Calculated? (9)

In the special case of a perfectly competitive market, a producer faces a perfectly elastic demand curve and therefore doesn't have to lower its price to sell more output. In this case, marginal revenue is equal to price as opposed to being strictly less than price and, as a result, the marginal revenue curve is the same as the demand curve.

This situation still follows the rule that the marginal revenue curve is twice as steep as the demand curve since twice a slope of zero is still a slope of zero.

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Your Citation

Beggs, Jodi. "Marginal Revenue and the Demand Curve." ThoughtCo, Aug. 27, 2020, thoughtco.com/marginal-revenue-and-demand-curve-1147860.Beggs, Jodi. (2020, August 27). Marginal Revenue and the Demand Curve. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/marginal-revenue-and-demand-curve-1147860Beggs, Jodi. "Marginal Revenue and the Demand Curve." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/marginal-revenue-and-demand-curve-1147860 (accessed December 4, 2022).

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How Are the Marginal Revenue and Demand Curves Calculated? (2024)

FAQs

How do you calculate marginal revenue from demand function? ›

For any linear demand function with an inverse demand equation of the form P = a - bQ, the marginal revenue function has the form MR = a - 2bQ.

How is marginal revenue calculated? ›

A company calculates marginal revenue by dividing the change in total revenue by the change in total output quantity. Ideally, the change in measurements captures the change from a single quantity to the next available quantity (i.e. the difference between the 100th and 101st unit sold).

Is demand curve related to marginal revenue? ›

The demand curve shows the quantity of an item that consumers in a market are willing and able to buy at each price point. The demand curve is important in understanding marginal revenue because it shows how much a producer has to lower his price to sell one more of an item.

What is the economics formula for the demand curve? ›

If the demand curve is linear, then it has the form: p = a - b*q, where p is the price of the good and q is the quantity demanded. The intercept of the curve and the vertical axis is represented by a, meaning the price when no quantity demanded. and b is the slope of the demand function.

What is marginal revenue curve? ›

The marginal revenue curve is a horizontal line at the market price, implying perfectly elastic demand and is equal to the demand curve. Under monopoly, one firm is a sole seller in the market with a differentiated product.

How do you calculate total revenue and marginal revenue? ›

Marginal revenue is a derivative of total revenue—at least when it comes to demand. That's because marginal revenue reflects the change in total revenue when one additional good or service is produced. You can calculate marginal revenue by dividing total revenue by the change in the number of goods and services sold.

Why is marginal revenue half of demand? ›

The marginal revenue is less than the price because while the producer will increase revenue on the additional unit sold, they will also decrease revenue on all previous units sold since they are now selling at a lower price.

Is revenue curve same as demand curve? ›

The demand curve equals the average revenue curve in all cases. This makes sense if you think about what average revenue is, it's just the total revenue divided by quantity sold, and the price and quantity are both taken from the demand curve.

Why is the marginal revenue curve below the demand curve? ›

The marginal revenue is always below the demand curve because sellers have to reduce prices to increase demand and sell the additional unit. Also, demand has to be higher to gain more revenue for the additional units.

Is the marginal benefit curve the same as the demand curve? ›

they are willing to sacrifice for one more unit of the good.] Therefore, the demand curve is the marginal benefit curve. for a unit of a good, he or she is gaining a surplus.

How do you calculate a curve? ›

A simple method for curving grades is to add the same amount of points to each student's score. A common method: Find the difference between the highest grade in the class and the highest possible score and add that many points. If the highest percentage grade in the class was 88%, the difference is 12%.

How do you find the demand curve on a graph? ›

With price on the y-axis and quantity on the x-axis, plot out the points given the price and quantity. Then, connect the dots. You'll notice that the slope is going down and to the right. Essentially, demand curves are formed by plotting the applicable price/quantity pairs at every possible price point.

How do you calculate the equation of a curve? ›

By taking the coordinates of the two points as (x1,y1) and (x2,y2) and substituting them into the equation y=mx+c, we will get the values of the parameters m and c, and hence the equation for the curve. Similarly, we can find out the equation for any other curve by substituting the coordinates.

What is demand curve curve? ›

What Is the Demand Curve? The demand curve is a graphical representation of the relationship between the price of a good or service and the quantity demanded for a given period of time. In a typical representation, the price will appear on the left vertical axis, the quantity demanded on the horizontal axis.

What is the formula of relationship between marginal revenue average revenue and elasticity of demand? ›

MR = AR {(e-1)/e} which denotes that MR is directly related to AR but change twice the proportion of AR whereas MR is inversely related to elasticity of demand.

What is the formula to calculate revenue? ›

Revenue (sometimes referred to as sales revenue) is the amount of gross income produced through sales of products or services. A simple way to solve for revenue is by multiplying the number of sales and the sales price or average service price (Revenue = Sales x Average Price of Service or Sales Price).

Why marginal revenue falls twice of the linear demand curve? ›

The marginal revenue curve is always below the demand curve when the demand curve is downward sloping because, when a producer has to lower his price to sell more of an item, marginal revenue is less than price.

What is the relationship between the marginal revenue curve and the demand curve for a single price monopolist? ›

For a single-price monopolist, marginal revenue is less than the price at each quantity of output (P > MR). Therefore, the marginal revenue curve lies below the demand curve for a monopolist.

How does marginal revenue compare to the demand curve when demand is linear? ›

If we have a linear demand curve like this, it can be defined as a line, then your marginal revenue curve for the monopolist will also be a linear downward-sloping curve or downward-sloping line, and it will have twice the slope. This slope over here was -1.

How do you find the marginal revenue from a demand table? ›

To calculate the marginal revenue, a company divides the change in its total revenue by the change of its total output quantity. Marginal revenue is equal to the selling price of a single additional item that was sold. Below is the marginal revenue formula: Marginal Revenue = Change in Revenue / Change in Quantity.

How do you find the demand function in microeconomics? ›

A demand function is defined by p=f(x), p = f ( x ) , where p measures the unit price and x measures the number of units of the commodity in question, and is generally characterized as a decreasing function of x; that is, p=f(x) p = f ( x ) decreases as x increases.

How is marginal revenue related to perceived demand? ›

As a firm's perceived demand curve shifts to the left, its marginal revenue curve will also shift to the left. The shift in marginal revenue will change the profit-maximizing quantity that the firm chooses to produce since marginal revenue will then equal marginal cost at a lower quantity.

How do you find the marginal revenue curve from an inverse demand curve? ›

Marginal Revenue if Inverse Demand is Linear

MR=P+bQ=a+bQ+bQ⇒MR=a+2bQ. Thus, if the inverse demand curve is linear, then the marginal revenue curve will have the same intercept as the inverse demand curve and twice the slope.

How do you find total revenue from a demand curve? ›

Review: Total revenue is price times quantity demanded: TR = P x Q.

How is demand calculated in economics? ›

In its standard form a linear demand equation is Q = a - bP. That is, quantity demanded is a function of price. The inverse demand equation, or price equation, treats price as a function f of quantity demanded: P = f(Q). To compute the inverse demand equation, simply solve for P from the demand equation.

What is demand curve in economics? ›

demand curve, in economics, a graphic representation of the relationship between product price and the quantity of the product demanded. It is drawn with price on the vertical axis of the graph and quantity demanded on the horizontal axis.

What is demand curve slope? ›

Law of Demand and Demand Curve Slope

The result of such an inverse relationship between price and quantity demanded is the negative slope of the demand curve. It can also be said that the slope of the demand curve is downward highlighting the inverse relationship between price and quantity demanded.

Why do the demand and Mr curves have the same shape? ›

A firm's marginal curve is same as demand curve because when a consumer demands one more unit of output, the firm will sell one more unit at market price and its revenue rises by exactly the same amount equal to the market price. It means that marginal revenue is equal to price.

What is the relationship between the demand curve and total revenue? ›

Total revenue changes with respect to price, and quantity can be visually demonstrated on a graph, in which a demand curve is drawn, that signals the price and quantity that would maximize total revenue.

How is the marginal revenue product curve related to the derived factor demand curve? ›

The marginal revenue product curve is a factor demand curve only because a perfectly competitive firm equates factor price with marginal revenue product. This happens only because factor price is equal to marginal factor cost for a perfectly competitive firm.

What is the relationship between marginal revenue MR and elasticity of demand? ›

As the quantity of the goods increases, the marginal revenue value becomes smaller, and the value of the price elasticity of demand also becomes smaller.

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