Chapter Four

The Theory of Production and Cost

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 Chapter objectives
 you will be able to:
• define production and production function
• differentiate between fixed and variable inputs
• describe short run total product, average product and marginal
product
• compare and contrast the three stages of production in the short
run
• explain the difference between accounting cost and economic cost
• describe total cost, average cost and marginal cost functions
• explain the relationship between short run production functions
and short run cost functions
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 4.1 Theory of production in the short run
 Production
• is the process of transforming inputs into outputs.
• It is an act of creating value or utility.

 Production function
• is a technical relationship between inputs and outputs.

• shows the maximum output that can be produced with fixed

amount of inputs and the existing technology.
• A general production function can be described as:
Q= f(X1, X2, X3,…, Xn )
where, Q is output and X1, X2, X3,…, Xn are different types of
inputs.
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 Outputs -the end products of the production process.
• could be tangible (goods) or intangible (services).

 Inputs includes land, labour, capital and entrepreneurial ability,

which are used to transform raw materials into outputs.
• commonly classified as
i) Fixed inputs
• inputs whose quantity cannot readily be changed when market
conditions indicate that an immediate adjustment in output is
required.
In fact, no input is ever absolutely fixed but may be fixed during an
immediate requirement.
• Ex. Buildings, land and machineries.
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ii) Variable inputs
• inputs whose quantity can be altered almost instantaneously in
response to desired changes in output.
• their quantities can easily be diminished when the market
demand for the product decreases and vice versa.
• Ex. unskilled labour.
 In economics, economic periods of production are classified
a) Short run a period of time in which the quantity of at least one
input is fixed.
• a time period which is not sufficient to change the quantities of all
inputs so that at least one input remains fixed.
b) Long Run a period of time in which the quantity of all input is
variable.
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 Different firms have different Short run and long run periods of
durations. Some firms can change the quantity of all their inputs
within a month while it takes more than a year for other types of
firms.

 Consider a firm that uses two inputs: capital (fixed) and labour
(variable). Given the assumptions of short run production, the firm
can increase output only by increasing the amount of labour.
• Hence, its production function can be given by:
Q = f (L) where, Q is output and L is the quantity
of labour.
• Output can be changed only when the amount of labour changes.
 Thus the short run production function shows different levels of
output that the firm can produce by efficiently utilizing different
units of labour and the fixed capital.
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 Total, average, and marginal product
In short run, the contribution of a variable input can be described in-
 Total product (TP)
• is the total amount of output that can be produced by efficiently
utilizing specific combinations of the variable input and fixed input.

• Increasing the variable input (while some other inputs are fixed) can
increase the total product only up to a certain point.

• Initially, as we combine more and more units of the variable input with
the fixed input, output continues to increase, but eventually if we
employ more and more unit of the variable input beyond the carrying
capacity of the fixed input, output tends to decline.

• In general, the TP function in the short run initially increases at an

increasing rate, then increases at a decreasing rate, reaches a
maximum point and eventually falls as the quantity of the variable
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input rises.
 Marginal Product (MP):
• is the change in output attributed to the addition of one unit of the
variable input to the production process, other inputs being constant.
• The change in total output resulting from employing additional
worker (holding other inputs constant) is the marginal product of
labour (MPL).
• measures the slope of the total product curve at a given point.
MPL=dTP/dL=ΔQ/ΔL

o first increases, reaches its maximum and then decreases to the

extent of being negative.
o That is, as we continue to combine more and more of the variable
input with the fixed input, the marginal product of the variable input
increases initially and then declines.
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 Average Product (AP)
• is the level of output that each unit of input produces, on the
average.
• the mean contribution of each variable input to the total product.
• it is the ratio of total output to the number of the variable input.
• The average product of labour (APL)
APL=TP/L
• first increases, reaches its maximum value and eventually
declines.

o The shape of TP, MP,AP can be illustrated using the following

graph
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• When APL is increasing, MPL > APL.
• When APL is at its maximum, MPL = APL.
• When APL is decreasing, MPL < APL. 10
 Example:
Suppose that the short-run production function of certain cut-flower
firm is given by: Q=4KL-0.6K2 -0.1L2
where Q is quantity of cut-flower produced, L is labour input and K is
fixed capital input (K=5).

a) Determine the APL function.

b) At what level of labour does the total output of cut-flower reach
the maximum?
c) What will be the maximum achievable amount of cut-flower
production?

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 The law of variable proportions(law of diminishing returns)
• as successive units of a variable input(say, labour) are added to a
fixed input (say, capital or land), beyond some point the MP that
can be attributed to each additional unit of the variable resource
will decline.
• If additional workers are hired to work with a constant amount of
capital equipment, output will eventually rise by smaller and
smaller amounts as more workers are hired.
o The law assumes that technology is fixed and thus the techniques
of production do not change.
o Moreover, all units of labour are assumed to be of equal quality.
o Each successive worker is presumed to have the same innate
ability, education, training, and work experience.

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o Marginal product ultimately diminishes because more workers are
being used relative to the amount of plant and equipment
available.
o The law starts to operate after the marginal product curve reaches
its maximum

Stages of production
Stage I:
• Covers the range of variable input levels over which APL continues
to increase.
• From the origin to the MPL=APL where the APL is maximum.
• is not an efficient region of production though the MP of variable
input is positive.
• Because the variable input (the number of workers) is too small to
efficiently run the fixed input so that the fixed input is under-
utilized (not efficiently utilized).
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Stage II
• ranges from the MPL=APL to the point where MPL is zero.
• As the labour input increases, output still increases but at a
decreasing rate.
• stage of diminishing marginal returns.
• MPL and APL are decreasing due to the scarcity of the fixed factor.
• Once the optimum capital-labour combination is achieved,
employment of additional unit of the variable input will cause the
output to increase at a slower rate.
• As a result, the marginal product diminishes.
• This stage is the efficient region of production.
• Additional inputs are contributing positively to the TP and MP of
successive units of variable input is declining (indicating that the
fixed input is being optimally used). 14
Stage III:
• An increase in the variable input is accompanied by decline in the
TP.
• Thus, the TP curve slopes downwards, and the MPL becomes
negative.
• This stage is also known as the stage of negative marginal returns.
• The cause of negative marginal returns is the fact that the volume
of the variable inputs is quite excessive relative to the fixed input;
the fixed input is over-utilized.
• Arational firm should not operate in stage III because additional
units of variable input are contributing negatively to the TP (MP of
the variable input is negative).

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 4.2 Theory of costs in the short run
o To produce goods and services, firms need factors of production
or simply inputs.
o To acquire these inputs, they have to buy them from resource
suppliers.
o Cost is, therefore, the monetary value of inputs used in the
production of an item.

Explicit Cost and Implicit Cost

o Economists use the term “profit” differently from the way
accountants use it.
o To the accountant, profit is the firm‘s total revenue less its explicit
costs (accounting costs).
o To the economist, economic profit is total revenue less economic
costs (explicit and implicit costs).
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 Accounting cost
• is the monetary value of all purchased inputs used in production.
• It ignores the cost of non-purchased (self-owned) inputs.
• It considers only direct expenses such as wages/salaries, cost of
raw materials, depreciation allowances, interest on borrowed
funds and utility expenses (electricity, water, telephone, etc.).
• These costs are said to be explicit costs which are out of pocket
expenses for the purchased inputs.
• An accounting profit.
Accounting profit = Total revenue – Accounting cost
Total revenue – Explicit cost

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 Economic cost
• considers all inputs (purchased and nonpurchased).
• Calculating economic costs will be difficult since there are no
direct monetary expenses for non-purchased inputs.
• The monetary value of these inputs is obtained by estimating
their opportunity costs in monetary terms.
• The estimated monetary cost for non purchased inputs is known
as implicit cost.
• Economic cost is the sum of implicit cost and explicit cost.
Economic profit = Total revenue – Economic cost
(Explicit cost + Implicit cost)
• Economic profit will give the real profit of the firm since all costs
are taken into account.
• Accounting profit of a firm will be greater than economic profit by
the amount of implicit cost.
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 Total, average and marginal costs in the short run
 A cost function shows the total cost of producing a given level of
output. C = f (Q),
where C is the total cost of production and Q is level of output.
 In the short run, total cost (TC) can be broken down in to two
i) Fixed costs
• are costs which do not vary with the level of output.
• are unavoidable regardless of the level of output.
• The firm can avoid fixed costs only if he/she stops operation (shuts
down the business).
• May include salaries of administrative staff, expenses for building
depreciation and repairs, expenses for land maintenance and the
rent of building used for production.
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ii) Variable costs
• costs which directly vary with the level of output.

• If the firm produces zero output, the variable cost is zero.

• may include the cost of raw materials, the cost of direct labour and
the running expenses of fuel, water, electricity, etc

 The short run total cost is given by the sum of total fixed cost and
total variable cost.
TC = TFC + TVC

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 TFC is denoted by a straight line parallel to the output axis.
because such costs do not vary with the level of output.
 TVC has an inverse S-shape which indicates the law of variable
proportions in production.
 At the initial stage of production with a given plant, as more of
the variable factor is employed, its productivity increases. Hence,
the TVC increases at a decreasing rate.
 This continues until the optimal combination of the fixed and
variable factor is reached.
 Beyond this point, as increased quantities of the variable factor
are combined with the fixed factor, the productivity of the
variable factor declines, and the TVC increases at an increasing
rate.
 TC curve is obtained by vertically adding TFC and TVC at each
level of output.
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• The shape of the TC curve follows the shape of the TVC curve,
i.e. the TC has also an inverse S-shape.
o It should be noted that when the level of output is zero, TVC is
also zero which implies TC = TFC.

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 Per unit costs
 Average fixed cost (AFC) - is total fixed cost per unit of output.
AFC = TFC/ Q
• declines continuously and approaches both axes asymptotically.

 Average variable cost (AVC) - is total variable cost per unit of

output.
AVC = TVC/ Q
• has U-shape falls initially, reaches its minimum, and then starts to
increase- the law of variable proportions.

 Average total cost (ATC) or simply Average cost (AC) is the total
cost per unit of output.
AC = TC/ Q

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 Marginal Cost (MC)
• is the additional cost that a firm incurs to produce one extra unit of
output.
• It is the change in total cost which results from a unit change in
output.

• is also a change in TVC with respect to a unit change in the level of

output.

• is the slope of TC function

• U shaped-initially decreases, reaches its minimum and then starts
to rise-the law of variable proportions.

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• AVC curve reaches its minimum point at Q1 level of output and AC
reaches its minimum point at Q2.
• The vertical distance between AC and AVC i.e. AFC decreases
continuously as output increases.
• MC curve passes through the minimum points of both AVC and AC
curves.
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 Example:
Suppose the short run cost function of a firm is given by:
TC=2Q3 –2Q2 + Q + 10
a) Find the expression of TFC & TVC
b) Derive the expressions of AFC, AVC, AC and MC
c) Find the levels of output that minimize MC and AVC and then find
the minimum values of MC and AVC

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4.3 The relationship between short run production and cost curves
• Suppose a firm in the short run uses labour as a variable input
and capital as a fixed input.
• Let the price of labour be given by w, which is constant.
• Given these conditions, we can derive the relation between MC
and MPL as well as the relation between AVC and APL.

• .

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• This expression also shows inverse relation between MC and MPL.
When initially MPL increases, MC decreases; when MPL is at its
maximum, MC must be at a minimum and when finally MPL
declines, MC increases

• inverse relation between AVC and APL.

• When APL increases, AVC decreases; when APL is at a maximum,
AVC is at a minimum and when finally APL declines, AVC increases.

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.

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End of chapter four

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