Topic 2- Productivity, Output and Employment Flashcards
Give 4 factors of production
- Capital (K)
- Labour (N)
- Others (raw materials, land, energy)
- Productivity of factors which depends on tech and management
What is the production function?
Y = AF(K,N)
What is A in the production function?
Total factor productivity
What is the Cobb-Douglas production function?
Y = (AK^a)x(N^1-a)
What are the 2 main properties of the shape of the production function?
- Slopes upward: more of any input increases output
- Slope becomes flatter: diminishing marginal product as input increases
What is the formula for marginal product of capital (MPK)?
MPK = dY/dK = A(δF/δK)
What part of the production function gives MPK?
The gradient
What is the formula for the marginal product of labour (MPN)?
MPN = dY/dN = A(δF/δN)
What part of the production function gives MPN?
The gradient
What are supply shocks?
They’re changes in an economy’s production function as they affect the amount of output that can be produced for given quantities of capital and labour. Can be positive or negative
Give 3 examples of supply shocks
- Inventions/innovations
- Extreme weather
- Oil price changes
What is a firm’s profit function?
π = p x Y(K,N) - (WxN)
What is the Utility function?
U = U(c,L)
c=consumption L=leisure
What is the time constraint of Utility?
T = work time + leisure time
When should one keep working?
If the benefits of working another day exceeds the cost, work another day. Keep increasing labour time until benefits equal costs
What is the substitution effect?
Higher real wage encourages work, since the opportunity cost of leisure is higher. The opportunity cost being the current real wage rate
What is the income effect?
Higher real wage increases income for the same amount of work time, so the person can afford more leisure; thus they will work less
What is a pure substitution effect?
A one-day rise in the current real wage as the effect on lifetime income is negligible
What strengthens the income effect?
The bigger the change in lifetime resources
What is a pure income effect and why is it so?
An increase in wealth e.g winning the lottery because it doesn’t effect the price of leisure so a person will both consume more goods and take more leisure
Give 2 factors that shift the individual labour supply curve
- Wealth: higher wealth reduces labour supply
- Expected future real wage: A higher expected real wage rate is like an increase in wealth
Give 4 factors that increase the aggregate labour supply
- Decrease in wealth
- Decrease in expected future wage rate
- Increase in working age population
- Increase in labour-force participation rate
What is the labour force (NF)?
Those who are able to have a job and want to have one. It is the maximum amount of labour that could be supplied
What are 2 main assumptions of the labour market equilibrium?
- In a competitive labour market there is no involuntary unemployment
- Any temporary deviation of the economy form the equilibrium is assumed to be eliminated by a movement in real wages