Oh, wow, oh, oh, whoa, oh, wow.

Oh, wow.

Oh, wow. Hello, you're all right.

Hello, you're listening to The Science of Everything podcast, episode 48, Theory of the Firm, and I'm your host, James Fodor.

So, sorry, it's been a while since the last episode. I've been rather busy with university and other things,

but I've got a bit of time over the next few weeks, so hopefully we'll be getting a good number of episodes out for you.

Also, just before we start, just a note on the previous episode that I'd promised,

which would be on computation in the visual system,

I've decided to postpone that episode because I think I've done enough on vision for the moment,

and I'd like to move on to some other topics.

And I think what I'll do is I'll combine some of that material into a single future episode

where I'll just talk about neural computation in a more general framework, not specifically

just about vision. So stay tuned. I might get to that in a few months' time after I cover

a few other topics, but that's so that's why I'm not doing that episode, even though that's

what I'd said I'd be moving on to next time. Instead, we're going to be looking at theory of the firms, specifically what firms are, what they do, why they

exist, and how they work. We'll be talking about things like how firms use inputs to create

outputs, the types of costs that firms face, like fixed costs and variable costs. We'll be

talking about some important issues

in regards to firm behaviour, including the efficient level of production, diminishing marginal

product, returns to scale, and some of the various other factors that affect firm behaviour.

Recommended prerequisites for this episode are episode 12 on the price system and episode 16 profits and competition

you'll probably also benefit from listening to episode five on corporate conspiracies

...