Factores de producción y costos

Prepared by:

Fernando & Yvonn Quijano
© 2007 Worth Publishers Essentials of Economics Krugman • Wells • Olney

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American farming practices (at left) or European farming practices (at right)? How intensively an acre of land is worked—a decision at the margin— depends on the price of wheat a farmer faces.

What you will learn in this chapter: ➤ The importance of the firm’sproduction function, the relationship between quantity of inputs and quantity of output ➤ Why production is often subject to diminishing returns to inputs ➤ What the various forms of a firm’s costs are and how they generate the firm’s marginal and average cost curves ➤ Why a firm’s costs may differ in the short run versus the long run ➤ How the firm’s technology of production can generate economies ofscale

© 2007 Worth Publishers Essentials of Economics Krugman • Wells • Olney

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The Production Function
A production function is the relationship between the quantity of inputs a firm uses and the quantity of output it produces.

Inputs and Output
A fixed input is an input whose quantity is fixed and cannot be varied.

A variable input is an input whose quantity thefirm can vary.

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The Production Function
Inputs and Output
The long run is the time period in which all inputs can be varied. The short run is the time period in which at least one input is fixed.

The total product curve shows how the quantity of output depends on the quantity of the variableinput, for a given quantity of the fixed input.

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The Production Function
Inputs and Output

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The Production Function
Inputs and Output
The marginal product of an input is the additional quantity ofoutput that is produced by using one more unit of that input.

(7-1)

Marginal Change in quantity of Change in quantity of output  output generated by one product  Change in quantity of labor of labor additional unit of labor

or

MPL  Q / L

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The Production Function
Inputs and Output© 2007 Worth Publishers Essentials of Economics Krugman • Wells • Olney

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The Production Function
Inputs and Output
There are diminishing returns to an input when an increase in the quantity of that input, holding the levels of all other inputs fixed, leads to a decline in the marginal product of that input.

© 2007 Worth Publishers Essentials of Economics Krugman •Wells • Olney

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The Production Function
Inputs and Output

© 2007 Worth Publishers Essentials of Economics Krugman • Wells • Olney

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Behind the Supply Curve: Inputs and Costs

An explicit cost is a cost that involves actually laying out money. An implicit cost does not require an outlay of money; it is measured by the value, in dollar terms, ofthe benefits that are forgone.

© 2007 Worth Publishers Essentials of Economics Krugman • Wells • Olney

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Behind the Supply Curve: Inputs and Costs
From the Production Function to Cost Curves
A fixed cost is a cost that does not depend on the quantity of output produced. It is the cost of the fixed input. A variable cost is a cost that depends on the quantity of outputproduced. It is the cost of the variable input. The total cost of producing a given quantity of output is the sum of the fixed cost and the variable cost of producing that quantity of output.
Total cost  Fixed cost  Variable cost

(7-2) or

TC  FC  VC

The total cost curve shows how total cost depends on the quantity of output.
© 2007 Worth Publishers Essentials of Economics Krugman •...