Variations in Profits Across Industries and Firms
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The important thing to note about Equation (1.9) is that a firm that breaks even in an economic sense in fact is earning an operating profit equal to its normal rate of return. The reason for this, of course, is that normal profits are considered to be an implicit cost. Put differently, a firm that is earning zero economic profit is earning a rate of return that is equal to the rate of return on the next best alternative investment of equivalent risk. A firm that is earning zero economic profit is earning an amount that is just sufficient to keep people from pulling their investments in search of a higher rate of return. When economic profits are positive (i.e., when operating profits are greater than normal profits), the firm is said to be earning an above-normal rate of return. When firms are earning above-normal profits, investment capital will be attracted into the business. These distinctions will be discussed in greater detail in Chapter 8 when we consider short-run and long-run competitive equilibrium.
VARIATIONS IN PROFITS ACROSS INDUSTRIES AND FIRMS It was pointed out earlier that profit is the mechanism whereby society signals resource owners and entrepreneurs where goods and services are in greatest demand. If market economies are dynamic and efficient, this would imply that profits tend to be equal across industries and among firms. Yet, this is hardly the case. Established industries, such as textiles and basic metals, tend to generate a lower rate of return than such high-technology industries as computer hardware and software, telecommunications, health care, and biotechnology. There are several theories that help to explain these profit differences. Although free-market economies tend to be relatively efficient and dynamic, it is this very dynamism that often gives rise to above-normal and below-normal profits. In general, we would expect risk-adjusted rates of return to be the same across all industries and firms. The frictional theory of profit, however, helps explain why this is rarely the case. To see this, we make a distinction between short-run and long-run competitive equilibrium. If we assume that firms are profit maximizers, then a firm is in shortrun equilibrium if it is earning an above-normal rate of return.The existence of above-normal rates of return tends to attract investment capital, thereby resulting in an increase in industry output, falling product prices, and lower profits. If a firm is earning below-normal rates of return, then investment capital will tend to exit the industry, resulting in lower output, rising product prices, higher prices, and increased profits. Firms that are just earning a normal rate of return are said to be in longrun equilibrium. When firms are in long-run equilibrium, investment capital will neither enter nor exit the industry. In this case, output neither expands
