| In microeconomics, economies of scale are the cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to size, output, or scale of operation, with cost per unit of output generally decreasing with increasing scale as fixed costs are spread out over more units of output. |
在微观经济学中，规模经济是指企业因规模、产量或运营规模扩大而获得的成本优势。随着生产规模的扩大，单位产出的成本通常会降低，因为固定成本被分摊到更多的产出单位上。 |
| Economies of scale apply to a variety of organizational and business situations and at various levels, such as a business or manufacturing unit, plant or an entire enterprise. |
在微观经济学与产业组织领域中，规模经济适用于多种组织与商业场景，且可作用于不同层级，例如单个业务部门、生产单元、工厂，乃至整个企业。 |
| For example, economies of scale apply to the fixed cost to produce units of output through production and manufacturing. |
例如，规模经济可作用于生产与制造过程中，通过扩大产量来分摊单位产出的固定成本。 |
| When average costs start falling then economies of scale are in production with fixed costs being a requirement for the equation. |
当平均成本开始下降时，表明企业正处于规模经济阶段，而固定成本的存在是这一现象得以成立的前提条件。 |
| With no fixed costs, the average cost and average variable cost would be equal. |
若无固定成本，则平均成本与平均可变成本将相等。 |
| Economies of scale exist in real life. |
规模经济在现实生活中真实存在。 |
| Some economies of scale, such as capital cost of manufacturing facilities and friction loss of transportation and industrial equipment, have a physical or engineering basis. |
部分规模经济现象，例如制造设施的资本成本以及运输和工业设备的摩擦损耗，具有物理或工程学基础。 |
| The economic concept dates back to Adam Smith and the idea of obtaining larger production returns through the use of division of labor. |
这一经济学概念可追溯至亚当·斯密，其核心思想是通过分工实现更大规模的生产回报。 |
| Diseconomies of scale are the opposite. |
规模不经济则恰恰相反。 |
| Economies of scale often have limits, such as passing the optimum design point where costs per additional unit begin to increase. |
规模经济往往存在上限，例如当生产规模超过最优设计点后，每新增一单位产量的成本会开始上升。 |
| Common limits include exceeding the nearby raw material supply, such as wood in the lumber, pulp and paper industry. |
常见的规模限制包括超出附近原材料供应能力，例如在木材、制浆与造纸行业中，若企业规模超过周边木材供应量，便可能触发这一限制。 |
| A common limit for low cost per unit weight commodities is saturating the regional market, thus having to ship product uneconomical distances. |
对于单位重量成本较低的商品而言，一个常见的规模限制是区域市场趋于饱和，导致企业不得不将产品运往距离过远的不经济区域 |
| Other limits include using energy less efficiently or having a higher defect rate. |
其他限制还包括能源利用效率降低或产品次品率上升。 |
| Large producers are usually efficient at long runs of a product grade (a commodity) and find it costly to switch grades frequently. |
大型生产商通常擅长大规模生产单一品级的商品（即标准化产品），但频繁切换生产品级会导致成本显著增加。 |
| They will therefore avoid specialty grades even though they have higher margins. |
因此，他们往往会避免生产高利润但小众的品级产品。 |
| Often smaller (usually older) manufacturing facilities remain viable by changing from commodity grade production to specialty products. |
通常，规模较小（且通常较老旧）的制造工厂会通过从标准化产品生产转向小众产品，来维持运营活力。 |
| The simple meaning of economies of scale is doing things more efficiently with increasing size or speed of operation. |
规模经济的核心含义在于，随着生产规模或运营速度的扩大，企业能够以更高效的方式开展生产活动。 |
| Economies of scale often rely on fixed cost which are constant and don't vary with output, and variable costs which can be effected with the amount of output. |
规模经济通常依赖于两类成本：一类是固定成本，这类成本在运营中保持恒定，不随产量增减而波动；另一类是可变成本，其数额会随产量变化而调整。 |
| In wholesale and retail distribution, increasing the speed of operations, such as order fulfillment, lowers the cost of both fixed and working capital. |
在批发与零售分销领域，通过提升运营速度，例如加快订单处理流程，企业能够同时降低固定资本和营运资本的成本。 |
| Other common sources of economies of scale are purchasing (bulk buying of materials through long-term contracts), managerial (increasing the specialization of managers), financial (obtaining lower-interest charges when borrowing from banks and having access to a greater range of financial instruments), marketing (spreading the cost of advertising over a greater range of output in media markets), and technological (taking advantage of returns to scale in the production function). |
规模经济的其他常见来源包括采购环节（通过签订长期合同批量采购原材料）、管理环节（提升管理人员的专业化分工水平）、财务环节（从银行获得更低利率的贷款，并接触更广泛的金融工具）、营销环节（在媒体市场中将广告成本分摊到更广泛的产量范围内）以及技术环节（利用生产函数中的规模报酬递增效应）。 |
| Each of these factors reduces the long run average costs (LRAC) of production by shifting the short-run average total cost (SRATC) curve down and to the right. |
上述每一项因素均能通过将短期平均总成本曲线（SRATC）向下并向右移动，从而降低长期平均成本（LRAC）。 |
| Economies of the scale is a practical concept that may explain real world phenomena such as patterns of international trade or the number of firms in a market. |
规模经济是一个具有实践意义的概念，它能够解释国际贸易格局或市场中企业数量等现实现象。 |
| The exploitation of economies of scale helps explain why companies grow large in some industries. |
规模经济的利用也解释了为何某些行业中的企业会不断发展壮大。 |
| It is also a justification for free trade policies, since some economies of scale may require a larger market than is possible within a particular country—for example, it would not be efficient for Liechtenstein to have its own car maker, if they only sold to their local market. |
规模经济也为自由贸易政策提供了理论依据，因为某些规模经济效应需要超出单一国家市场的更大规模才能实现——例如，若仅面向列支敦士登的本土市场销售，该国建立自己的汽车制造商将毫无效率可言。 |
| A lone car maker may be profitable, but even more so if they exported cars to global markets in addition to selling to the local market. |
一家独立的汽车制造商或许能实现盈利，但若其产品不仅销往本土市场，还能出口至全球市场，则利润将更为可观。 |
| Economies of scale also play a role in a "natural monopoly". |
规模经济效应也是“自然垄断”形成的重要因素之一。 |
| There is a distinction between two types of economies of scale: internal and external. |
规模经济可分为两种类型：内部规模经济与外部规模经济。 |
| An industry that exhibits an internal economy of scale is one where the costs of production falls when the number of firms in the industry drops, but the remaining firms increase their production to match previous levels. |
在存在内部规模经济的行业中，当行业内企业数量减少时，剩余企业的生产成本会随之降低，同时这些企业会扩大产量以维持原有总产出水平。 |
| Conversely, an industry exhibits an external economy of scale when costs drop due to the introduction of more firms, thus allowing for more efficient use of specialized services and machinery. |
相反，在存在外部规模经济的行业中，当企业数量增加时，生产成本会因专业化服务与机械设备的更高效利用而下降。 |
| The management thinker and translator of the Toyota Production System for service, Professor John Seddon, argues that attempting to create economies by increasing scale is powered by myth in the service sector. |
服务领域的管理思想家、丰田生产方式服务化译者约翰·塞教授认为，服务业中试图通过扩大规模来创造经济效益的做法，实则受制于一种普遍的误解。 |
| Instead, he believes that economies will come from improving the flow of a service, from first receipt of a customer’s demand to the eventual satisfaction of that demand. |
相反，他主张经济效益应源自服务流程的优化，即从首次接收客户需求到最终满足需求的整个服务链条的改进。 |
| In trying to manage and reduce unit costs, firms often raise total costs by creating failure demand. |
企业若一味追求降低单位成本，往往可能因制造“无效需求”而推高总成本。 |
| Seddon claims that arguments for economy of scale are a mix of |
塞登（Seddon）指出，支持规模经济的论调实际上混杂了…… |
| a) the plausibly obvious and |
a)似是而非的明显观点和 |
| b) a little hard data, brought together to produce two broad assertions, for which there is little hard factual evidence. |
b)仅掺杂了少量确凿数据，却据此得出两项笼统的论断，而这两项论断实际上都缺乏确凿的事实依据。 |
