罗伯特·S.平狄克-微观经济学（第九版）PindyckPPT_Ch.6.pptx

MICROECONOMICSby Robert S. Pindyck Daniel RubinfeldNinth EditionCopyright ? 2016, 2012, 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved Chapter 6ProductionIn this chapter and the next we discuss the theory of the firm, which describes how a firm makes cost-minimizing production decisions and how the firm’s resulting cost varies with its output.CHAPTER OUTLINE6.1 Firms and Their Production Decisions6.2 Production with One Variable Input (Labor)6.3 Production with Two Variable Inputs6.4 Returns to ScaleLIST OF EXAMPLES6.1 The Authors Debate a Production Function for Health Care 1976.2 Malthus and the Food Crisis6.3 Labor Productivity and the Standard of Living6.4 A Production Function for Wheat6.5 Returns to Scale in the Carpet Industry The Production Decisions of a FirmThe production decisions of firms can be understood in three steps:Production Technology: How inputs (such as labor, capital, and raw materials) can be transformed into outputs.Cost Constraints: How inputs (such as labor, capital, and raw materials) can be transformed into outputs.Input Choices: Just as a consumer is constrained by a limited budget, the firm is concerned about the cost of production and the prices of labor, capital, and other inputs.theory of the firm Explanation of how a firm makes cost-minimizing production decisions and how its cost varies with its output. 6.1 Firms and Their Production Decisions(1 of 3)Why Do Firms Exist?Firms offer a means of coordination that is extremely important and would be sorely missing if workers operated independently.Firms eliminate the need for every worker to negotiate every task that he or she will perform, and bargain over the fees that will be paid for those tasks. Firms can avoid this kind of bargaining by having managers that direct the production of salaried workers—they tell workers what to do and when to do it, and the workers (as well as the managers themselves) are simply paid a weekly or monthly salary. 6.1 Firms and Their Production Decis