diminishing average product. This is not true in all cases,
however, as the accompanying figure shows.
In the figure below, marginal product diminishes after v units of
the variable factor are employed. Because marginal product falls
toward, but never quite reaches, a value of m, average product
rises continually toward, but never quite reaches, the same value.
- Let Q be the quantity of output and L the quantity of the variable
factor. In the short run,
We now define
TP=Q=f(L)
[15.1]
AP= QL = f(LL)
[15.2]
MP= ddQL
[15.3]
