Refer to the production table for jeans (Table 7.1). Suppose a firm has two sewing machines and can vary only the amount of labor input. (a) Graph the production function for jeans given the two sewing machines. (b) Compute and graph the marginal physical product curve. (c) At what amount of labor input does the law of diminishing returns first become apparent in your graph of marginal physical product? (d) Is total output still increasing when MPP begins to diminish? (e) When total output stops increasing, what is the value of MPP?

A production function tells us the maximum amount of output attainable from alternative combinations of factor inputs. This particular function tells us how many pairs of jeans we can produce in a day with a given factory and varying quantities of capital and labor With one sewing machine, and one operator, we can produce a maximum of 15 pairs of jeans per day, as indicated in the second column of the second row. To produce more jeans, we need more labor or more capital.

JEANS OUTPUT (pairs per day) 110, 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 LABOR INPUT (workers per day) 7 MARGINAL PHYSICAL PRODUCT pairs perday) 20 10 5 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 LABOR INPUT (workers per day) 7 8 Capital Input (Sewing Machines per Day) 1 2 3 Labor Input (Workers per Day) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 Jeans Output (Pairs per Day) 0 0 0 0 15 34 44 0 20 46 64 0 21 50 73 0 0 48 72 7 O 50 51 51 8 00 O 47 78 81 82 80 83 92 99 103 103