Question

Economics students often confuse (a) diminishing returns related to the variable factors of production and (b) diseconomies of scale. Explain the difference between the two, and give one example of each.

Answer 1

Answer:

Marginal Product:

The marginal product of an input that is being used in the production process of a good or services is the extra output generated by using the extra unit of that input. Alternatively, the marginal product is the output generated by the last unit of the input added only.

Explanation:

1. Diminishing marginal returns means that as you adds more units of that input, the marginal product declines. That is, each additional of extra unit of the input results in decreased and less additional output. For example, the marginal product of labor usually decreases as the amount of labor increases because there is a fixed amount of capital used in the short run, so when labor increases, the capital per unit of labor decreases, which results in each and every extra working being less productive than the previous one.
2. Dis-economies of scale, whereas, results in an increase in the average cost of production as the number of units increases. That's why diminishing marginal returns refers to production, and dis-economies of scale refers to the average cost. Dis-economies of scale often happened because the production levels get high, there is less management on each employee, resulting in each employee having less motivation to work as hard due to lack of production making it hard to notice that change.So, it may results in the average worker's productivity decreasing, causing the per-unit cost to rise.