QUASI RENT

QUASI RENT

DR. LAXMI NARAYAN YADAV

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS

GOVT. P.G. COLLEGE MAHENDERGARH

E-mail: laxmi_narayan70@yahoo.com

QUASI RENT

The concept of quasi-rent owes its origin to Dr. Alfred

Marshall.

Marshall is of the view that a differential surplus which

arises from a factor of production, whose supply is

fixed for all times to come should be named as rent but

a temporary gain which a factor or production earns

due to temporary limitation of its supply should be

called quasi-rent..

Quasi-rent is a temporary gain which is earned by a

factor of production due to the temporary limitation of

its supply.

QUASI RENT

In the short run, machinery has no alternative use and

therefore its supply will remain fixed in the short run. Thus, the

transfer earnings of the capital equipment or machinery in the

short run are zero. Therefore, the whole of the earnings of the

machinery in the short run are surplus over transfer earnings

and therefore represent rent.

Professors Stonier and Hague rightly remark: The supply

of machines is fixed in the short run whether they are paid

much money or little so they earn a kind of rent. In the

long run this rent disappears for it is not a true rent.

MEASUREMENT OF QUASI RENT

Quasi Rent as Surplus over Variable Costs

The variable costs must be recovered in the shortrun otherwise the production would be stopped.Whatever excess earnings over and above the totalvariable costs are made are ascribed to themachines (i.e. fixed factor).

Quasi Rent = Total Revenue Earned -Total

Variable Costs

MEASUREMENT OF QUASI RENT

OutputO

MC

AC

P0 E

F

M

P1

N

P2G

P

Q

Similarities

Quasi rent arises when the demand for man made

goods increases, while rent arises with the rise in the

demand for the products of land.

Just as the supply of man made appliances is fixed in

the short period, so is that of land.

Transfer earnings are as much important for

determining quasi rent as they are for determining rent.

Quasi rent like the rent of land is price determined and

not price determining.

Distinction Between Rent

and Quasi Rent

Differences

Rent is a payment for natural gifts of nature like

land. Quasi rent is a payment for man made

appliances like machines.

As the supply of land cannot be changed, rent

persists in both short run and long run. But quasi

rent is a short run phenomenon which disappears

in the long run when the supply of man made

goods is increased.

Rent is permanent in nature while quasi rent is a

temporary phenomenon.

Distinction Between Rent

and Quasi Rent

Differences Rent is the difference between total revenue and total

costs whereas quasi rent is difference between total

revenue variable costs.

Rent is regarded as unearned income. But quasi rent is

a necessary payment which all factors of production

receive due to their inelastic supply in the short run.

Rent arises due to differences in fertility of land whereas

quasi rent arises due to the scarcity of man made

appliances in the short run.

Rent cannot be zero but quasi rent can be zero when the

short run price of the commodity equals its average

variable cost.

Distinction Between Rent and Quasi Rent