ECO100Y1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Diminishing Returns, Marginal Cost, Marginal Product

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yellowcat826

15 Dec 2017

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Topic 7 production & cost schedule (week seven oct 25th-nov 1st) Outline: production function, product schedule (short run) - law of diminishing returns: cost of productions (short run) - properties of firms" cost curves: average costs. - why curves are shaped that way and their intercepts: long-run average cost curve, opportunity cost and the measurement of economic profit (cid:122) production function: relationship between output and the quantity of input. Short-run: one input (capital) is fixed; while on input (labor) can vary; Long-run: all inputs (capital, labor, etc. ) can vary. Short-run: gm can vary the amount of labor (overtime, lay-offs), but cannot vary the number of plants (selling land); Long-run: gm can vary both number of plants and amount of labor; (cid:122) product schedules (short-run: terminology. Increase in total output divided by increase in labor input; Total product divided by labor input: law of diminishing returns.

Related Questions

4. A firm's short-run production function describes how the

A. Maximum possible output varies as the quantity of labor hired varies in a given factory.

B. Minimum possible output varies as the quanity of labor hired varies in given factory.

C. Maximum possible output varies as a firm enlarges the size of its factory.

D. Minimum possible output varies as a firm enlarges the size of its factory.

5. For U.S. Steel, the total product curve represents the

A. maximum amount of steel attinable for each quanity of variable input hired.

B. Minimum amount of Steel attinable for each quanity of variable input hired.

C. Lowest cost of producing various amounts of steel.

D. Maximum profit when producing and selling various amounts of steel.

6. Kaiser Aluminums total product Curve will shift upward if the firm

A. Hires additonal quanities of labor and materials.

B. Pays lower wages to accuire additonal workers.

C. employs more efficient technologies in aluminum production

D. Initiates work rules leading to falling productivity of labor.

7. Margianl cost is defined as

A. total fixed costs plus total variable cost.

B. Total cost divided bt the level of output.

C. The increase in total cost as a frim produces an additonal unit of output.

D. Total cost minus total fixed cost.

8. The range over which marginal cost is decreasing is the same range over which

A. Total product is Increasing.

B. Marginal product is Increasing.

C. Total cost is increasing at an increasing rate.

D.total cost is decreasing.

9. General motors will realize diseconomics of scale if an increase in plant size causes.

A. A decrease in a long-run average total cost.

B. An increase in long-run average cost.

C. The short -run total product curve to shift upward.

D. The short-run total product curve to remain constant.

10. For Boeing, thechnological advances in the production of jetliners will tend to shift the total product and marginal product curves

A. Downward, and total cost and marginal cost curves upward.

B. Upward, and total cost and marginal cost curves downward.

C. Upward, and no change in total cost and marginal cost curves.

D. Downward, and no change in total cost and margial cost curves.

taupehound88

Question:

Is it true that in a short-run production process, the marginal cost curve eventually slopes upward because firms have to pay workers a higher wage rate as they produce more output? Explain your answer.

Answer:

The marginal product of labor is the increase in output resulting from a one-unit increase in the amount of labor employed. In my own opinion, the statement can be true in the sense that, as the firm produces more and more the cost of production has to come down first; that becomes constant or minimum and then starts to increase. The marginal cost is also a U-shaped curve that first falls then reaches a minimum and starts rising. The reason for rising marginal costs in the short term will only be an increase in the wages as the only factor which is variable in the short-run is labor whereas all factors are kept fixed, so the fixed costs will keep coming down. If you increase labor, you are going to suffer from diminishing marginal returns. And in the long-run, one will suffer diminishing returns from both input factors, labor, and capital.

The short-run cost relationship between the marginal product of labor and the marginal cost, the labor is variable. We have already established that there are diminishing marginal returns because the labor decreases. To increase output in the short-run, a firm must increase the amount used of a variable input. The marginal product reduces, not because consecutive workers are lesser, but because more workers are being used relative to the amount of equipment that is available, what they have left to work with. An example; if a clinic has only one dentist on duty and several assistants are available and we have a lot of patients waiting to see that doctor, the number of patients served by this office cannot increase without limit. The excess assistants will not be able to increase the number of patients in the office, not because they are not reliable or good enough, but because they cannot perform the doctor's job, and there is only one doctor in the office.

https://www.quora.com/Why-does-the-marginal-cost-curve-slope-upwards

I need a peer reply for this.