Exercices of Mathematics applied to Economics

RATE OF CHANGE

1. The population size in certain time t (measured in years) is given by: p(t) = 10000+1000t−120t 2 .
Determine the average rate of change when t goes from 3 to 5 years and from 3 to 3.5 years.

2. A manufacturer finds that the cost of producing x articles is given by: C(x) = 0.001x 3 − 0.3x2 +
40x + 1000. Find the average cost for additional unit when the production increases from 90 to
100 units.

3. The total weekly revenue R (in dollars) obtained by the production and sale of x units of certain
article is given by R(x) = f (x) = 500x−2x 2 . Determine the avegare rate of change for additional
unit when the number of produced and sold units by week is increased from 100 to 120.

DERIVATIVES OF ONE VARIABLE

4. Derivate:
(a) f (x) = −3x2 + x (b) f (x) = 3e−4x + (0.5x)3

2x
(c) f (x) = (x2 − 1)(2x − 3)3 (d) f (x) = (1+4x)3

(e) f (x) = √2−x (f ) f (x) = ln(1 + x2 + 3x3 )

2−x

√
3

x−1

(g) f (x) = 5x + 2 (h) f (x) = ln x+1

1
(i) f (x) = (2x ∗ 3 − 3x)4 (j) f (x) = (x2 + x + 1) 3

e x (2x+1)1/2
(k) f (x) = ln 1+e x (l) f (x) = (x+5)5

(m) f (x) = ln(ln(x)) (n) f (x) = (x3 + x2 − 2x − 1)−2

5. The demand equation of a certain article is p + 0.1x = 80 and the cost function is C(x) =
5000 + 20x. Find the marginal utility when 150 units are produced and sold and, moreover, in
the case that 400 units are produced and sold.

6. If the demand equation is x3/2 + 50p = 1000, find the marginal revenue when p = 16.

7. If the demand equation is x + 4p = 10, find the marginal revenue. If the cost function is
C(x) = 100 + 5x, find the marginal utility.
√
8. If the demand equation is x + p = 10, find the marginal revenue. If the cost function is
C(x) = 60 + x, find the marginal utility.

1
 OPTIMIZATION: MAXIMUMS AND MINIMUMS

9. In the last two exercises, find the value of x such that P (x) 0 = 0 and find the correspondent
utility. This one represents the maximum utility that can be obtained by the sale of the article.
Determine the price p that gives this maximum utility.

10. A company manufactures a product, a quantity of x, with a total cost of

x2
C(x) = 100 + − 5x
10
It sells the production with a price of 20 m.u.

(a) For x = 50, find the marginal cost, the marginal revenue and the marginal benefit.
(b) Find the value of x with which the total cost gets minimum.
(c) Find the value of x with which the benefit gets maximum.
x3
11. If C(x) = 1000 + 640x − 25x2 + 3 is the function of total cost,

(a) find, for x = 3, the total cost, the average cost, the marginal cost;
(b) find the values for which the marginal cost decreases;
(c) find de minimum marginal cost.

12. The demand function for an article is p = 15e −x/3 for 0 ≤ x ≤ 8, where p is the unity price and
x is the total number of demand units. Determine the price p and the quantity x for which the
revenue is maximum.

13. The reaction of a drug in the time t after having been administered is R(t) = t 2 e−t . In which
moment will the reaction be maximum?.

INCREASING AND DECREASING

14. The cost of producing x miles of units of a product is C(x) = 2500 + 9x − 3x 2 + 2x3 . In which
level of production will the marginal cost be increasing? In which will it be decreasing?.

15. For the cost function C(x) = 6 + 2x(x + 4)/(x + 1), demonstrate that the marginal cost and the
average cost are decreasing when x ≥ 0.

BENDING UP AND DOWN

16. Study the bending up and down of the next cost functions:
√
a) C(x) = 100 + x2 b) C(x) = 1500 + 25x − 0.1x2 + 0.004x3
√ 3/2
c) C(x) = 100 + 40 x − x + 0.02x

2
 INDEFINITE INTEGRALS

17. Find the next immediate integrals:

(2x + 1)7 dx
R R
(a) x−2 dx (b)
R√ R 1
(c) 3x − 5dx (d) (2−5x)2 dx

√ 1 1
R R
(e) 5−2x
dx (f ) 2t−1 dt

(x2 + 7x + 3)4 (2x + 7)dx (2x + 4)(x2 + 4x + 2)10 dx

R R
(g) (h)

e3z+2 dz
R R
(i) e−8x dx (j)
R 2x R 2x+3
(k) x2 +1 dx (l) (x2 +3x+1)3 dx

DEFINITE INTEGRALS

18. The marginal cost of a company is C 0 (x) = 30 + 0.05x.

a) Determine the cost function C(c), if the fixed costs of the company are $2000 every month.
b) How many will 150 units cost in one month?.
c) If the articles can be sold at $55 every one, how many articles should be produced to obtain
the maximum utility?.

19. The marginal cost of a firm is C 0 (x) = 24 − 0.03x + 0.006x2 . If the cost of producing 200 units
is $22.700 , find:

a) the cost function;

b) the fixed costs of the firm;
c) The cost of producing 50 units;
d) If the articles can be sold at $90 every one, determine the level of productions that maximizes
the utility.

20. If the marginal revenue function of a company is R 0 (x) = 4 − 0.01x, find the obtained revenue
for the sale of x units of its products.

21. The marginal utility function of a firm is U 0 (x) = 5 − 0.002x and the firm has got a utility of
$310 when it sells 100 units. What is the utility of the firm?.

DERIVATIVES OF SEVERAL VARIABLES

22. Find all first partial derivatives of the given functions:

(a) f (x, y) = x2 y 2 at (1, 3) (b) f (x, y) = −3x2 y 4 at (−1, −3)

4st
(c) f (s, t) = −3s2 t5 + 4s3 t at (2, 4) (d) g(s, t) = 3s2 +5s3 t at (1, 1)

3
 3x2 +5x4 y 3
(e) h(x, y) = 2x5 y 2 (f ) g(x, y) = ln(3x2 + 5y 6 )

3 t4
(g) f (s, t) = −2es (h) f (s, t) = 4s2 e3st
23. The utility function of a consumer in a market of two products is
U = 4x1 + x1 x2 + 2x2 ,
where x1 and x2 are the acquired quantities of each product. The prices of the products are
p1 = 5 and p2 = 8 m.u.. The consumer revenue is 140 m.u., which is completely spent. Find the
values of x1 and x2 for that the marginal utilities of the two products being equals.
24. From experience, the manager of a store knows that if the price of brand A chocolate is p a dollars
per pound and that brand B chocolate is p B dollars per pound, then the daily profit derived
from these two brands of chocolate will be given by
P (pA , pB ) = −4p2A + 8pa pB − 6p2B + 57pA + 88pB − 970
(a) Find the marginal profit with respect to p A when pA = 10 and pB = 8 and interpret the
result.
(b) Find the marginal profit with respect to p B when pA = 10 and pB = 8 and interpret the
result.
25. A store carries two kind of detergents. If D A and DB are the respective demands for brand A
and brand B in thousands of boxes per week, then when the price of brand A is p A dollars per
box and the price of brand B is pB dollars per box, we have
DA = 650 − 12p2A + 10p3B DB = 800 + 15p3A − 13p2B
Find the values of the four marginal demand functions when p a = 4.5 and pB = 5.1.

OPTIMIZATION
26. Locate the critical points of the given functions and determine whether the functions have relative
maxima, relative minima or saddle points at these critical points:
(a) f (x, y) = x2 + y 2 − 25 (b) f (x, y) = x2 − 5xy + 6y 2 + 3x − 6y + 10

(c) f (x, y) = 36 − 4x2 − 9y 2 (d) f (x, y) = x3 + 3x+ 2y 2 − 24x + 12y − 13

(e) g(x, y) = ln(3x2 + 5y 6 ) (f ) f (x, y) = y 3 + x2 − 4xy + 4y + 12

8 1
(g) f (x, y) = xy + x + y (h) f (x, y) = y 3 + 9x2 y − 6xy 2 + 6x2 − 144x + 6

27. The total cost of grade A beef is $3 per pound and that of grade B beef is $2 per pound. If the
retail process of grade A and grade B beef are p A and pB dollars per pound, respectively, the
demands for grade A and B beefs, respectively, are given by
DA = 2750 − 700pA + 200pB DB = 2400 + 150pA − 800pB
where DA and DB are the quantities (in pounds) of grade A and grade B sold per day. What
should the retail price of each grade of beef be to maximize the daily profit? What is the
maximum daily profit?

4
28. A company manufactures two brands of a certain commodity. If q A units of a brand A and qB
units of a brand B are produced each day, the daily profit P (p a , pB ) dollars is given by
P (qA , qB ) = −30qa2 + 90qA qB − 70qB
2
+ 300qA + 150qB − 6750
How many units of each brand should be produced daily to maximize profit? What is the
maximum daily profit?
29. The Baldhead Company makes two types of hairdryers. If D A and DB are the respective demand
when the prices are pA and pB dollars each, then
DA = 456 − 30pA + 54pB DB = 666 + 10pA − 40pB
It costs the company $12 to produce a type A hairdryer and $15 to produce a type B hairdryer.
At what price should the company sell the hairdryers to maximize profit? What is the maximum
profit?

LAGRANGE MULTIPLIERS
30. The Cobb-Douglas production function for a certain manufacturer is Q = f (L, K) = A · L c K d
where c+d = 1, 0 < c < 1, L is the number of units of labor, K is the number of units of capital,
f (L, K) is the number of units produced and A is a constant. Find the maximum production
level in each particular case:
(a) f (L, K) = 320L0.4 K 0.6 labor: $30 per unit; capital: $70 per unit
amount available: $210000 per unit

(b) f (L, K) = 500L0.3 K 0.7 labor: $35 per unit; capital: $90 per unit
amount available: $189000 per unit

(c) f (L, K) = 6300L0.75 K 0.25 labor: $35 per unit; capital: $52 per unit
amount available: $182000 per unit

31. An editor estimates that if x thousand dollars is spent on development and y thousand dollars
is spent on promotion, approximately N new books will be sold, where
N = 3c5/2 y 3/2
If the editor has $120000 to spend on development and promotion, how much should be allocated
to each in order to maximize the number of books sold? Using the Lagrange multiplier, estimate
the increase in the maximum number of books sold if the editor has $1000 more to spend on
development and promotion.
32. A manufacturer estimates that if x thousand dollars is spent on development and y thousand
dollars is spent on promotion, approximately N units of a new product will be sold, where
N = 90x1.4 y 0.6
If the manufacturer wishes to spend $150000on development and promotion, how much should
be allocated to each in order to maximize sales? Using the Lagrange multiplier method, estimate
the increase in the maximum number of units sold if the manufacturer increase the budget for
development and promotion by $1000.