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The Market for the Factors of Production

The Market for the Factors of Production. Factors of Production are the inputs used to produce goods and services. What are the major factors of production? What determines how much each factor of production is paid? What determines how much of each factor of production will be purchased?.

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The Market for the Factors of Production

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  1. The Market for the Factors of Production • Factors of Productionare the inputs used to produce goods and services. • What are the major factors of production? • What determines how much each factor of production is paid? • What determines how much of each factor of production will be purchased?

  2. The Market for the Factors of Production • The demand for a factor of production is a Derived Demand. • A firm’s demand for a factor of production is derived fromits decision to supply a good in another market.

  3. A Firm’s Demand For Labour • Labour is the most important factor of production. • Labour markets, like other markets in the economy, are governed by the forces of supply and demand. • Most labour services, rather than being final goods ready to be enjoyed by consumers, are inputs into the production of other goods.

  4. A Firm’s Demand For Labour:The Competitive Profit-Maximizing Firm • A Competitive Firm • is a price taker, for both the product it sells (e.g. apples) and the input it buys (e.g. apple pickers) • has the goal to maximize profits • The firm’s supply of apples and its demand for workers are derived from its primary goal of maximizing profits.

  5. The Production Function and The Marginal Product of Labour Output Illustrates and describes the relationship between the quantity of inputs used and the quantity of output from production. Input

  6. The Marginal Product of Labour • Marginal Product of Labour: The increase is the amount of output from an additional unit of labour. MPL = (Q2 - Q1) ÷ (L2 - L1) • Example: MPL = (180 - 100) ÷ (2 - 1) = 80 • The second unit of labour adds 80 additional bushels of apples picked

  7. The Diminishing Marginal Product of Labour • As the number of workers increases, the marginal product of labour declines. • As more and more workers are hired, each additional worker contributes less to the production. • The production function gets flatter as the number of workers rises.

  8. The Marginal Product of Labour: How many workers to hire? To maximize profits, the firm considers how much profit each worker would bring in. . . Value of the Marginal Product

  9. Value of the Marginal Product... … is the marginal product of the input (MPL) multiplied by the market price of the output: VMPL = (MPL) x (Px) • VMPL is measured in dollars and diminishes as the number of workers rises because the market price of the good (Px) is constant.

  10. How many workers to hire? • To maximize profit, the firm hires workers up to the point where the VMPL is equal to the cost of the labour, i.e. market wage. VMPL = WAGE • The value-of-marginal-product curve is the labour demand curve for a competitive, profit-maximizing firm.

  11. Labour-Market Equilibrium • Labour supply and labour demand together determine the equilibrium wage, and shifts in the supply or demand curve for labour cause the equilibrium wage to change. • Profit maximization by competitive firms demanding labour, ensures that the equilibrium wage always equals the value of the marginal product.

  12. Labour-Market Equilibrium: Shifts in the Supply and Demand of Labour • The wage adjusts to balance the supply and demand for labour. • Shift in Supply of labour: may be caused by increased number of available labour. • Shift in Demand for labour: may be caused by an increased demand for the final product produced by labour.

  13. What causes productivity and wages to vary so much over time? • Physical Capital: when workers work with a larger quantity of equipment and structures, they produce more. • Human Capital:when workers are more educated, they produce more. • Technological Knowledge:When workers have access to more sophisticated technologies, they produce more.

  14. Other Factors of Production: Land and Capital • Capital: refers to the stock of equipment and structures used for production. • The economy’s capital represents the accumulation of goods produced in the past that are being used in the present to produce new goods and services.

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