Asked by Abigail Orozco on May 10, 2024
Verified
Michael's Dairy farm production function is given by 
where K is the number of machine milkers and L is the amount of labor hours he uses. Does this production function exhibit increasing, constant or decreasing returns to scale? Holding the number of machine milkers constant at 16, is the marginal product of labor increasing, constant or decreasing as more labor is used?
Machine Milkers
Mechanical devices or systems used to extract milk from dairy animals, such as cows or goats.
Marginal Product
The supplementary production derived by adding one more unit of a particular input, with all else remaining constant.
Labor Hours
The amount of time workers spend on the job, often measured in hours per day, week, or year.
- Analyze the nature of returns to scale in a production function as increasing, constant, or decreasing.
- Examine the relationship between the marginal product of labor and the scale of input use.
Verified Answer
VW
Vincente Wycliffe
May 16, 2024
Final Answer :
Since 
we know the production process exhibits decreasing returns to scale. Holding the number of machine milkers constant at 16 will still result in a downward sloping marginal product of labor curve. That is, the marginal product of labor decreases as more labor is used.
we know the production process exhibits decreasing returns to scale. Holding the number of machine milkers constant at 16 will still result in a downward sloping marginal product of labor curve. That is, the marginal product of labor decreases as more labor is used.
Learning Objectives
- Analyze the nature of returns to scale in a production function as increasing, constant, or decreasing.
- Examine the relationship between the marginal product of labor and the scale of input use.