Production and factors of production. Production function. The main factors of production 1 factors of production and their economic significance

Refers to production (capital) resources. It includes the totality of benefits created by the past human labor: buildings, structures, machines, machines, tools, etc. Stocks, bonds, money, bank deposits do not belong to this factor of production.

Possession of reliable information is necessary condition to solve the problems facing the economic entity. However, even complete information is not a guarantee of success. The ability to use the information obtained to make the best decision under the current circumstances characterizes such a resource as knowledge... The carriers of this resource are qualified personnel in the field of management, sales and customer service, Maintenance goods. It is this resource that gives the greatest return in business. “What distinguishes strong company from weak - this is, first of all, the level of qualifications of its specialists and management personnel, their knowledge, motivations and aspirations "

In conditions market economy all of the above economic resources are freely bought, sold and brought to their owners special (factor) income:

rent (land.);
interest (capital);
wages (labor);
profit (entrepreneurial ability).

German economist and philosopher of the 19th century. Karl Marx singled out personal and material factors of production, while the person himself acts as a personal factor, as a carrier work force, and the material factor of production means the means of production, which in turn consist of the means of labor and objects of labor.

A means of labor is "... a thing or a complex of things that a person places between himself and the object of labor and which serve for him as a conductor of his influences on this object." Means of labor, and, above all, instruments of labor, include machines, machine tools, tools with the help of which a person influences nature, as well as industrial buildings, land, canals, roads, etc. The use and creation of instruments of labor - characteristic labor activity person. To the means of labor in more broad sense include all material conditions of work, without which it cannot be performed. The general condition of labor is land, the conditions of labor are also production buildings, roads, etc. The results of social cognition of nature are embodied in the means of labor and the processes of their production use, in technology and technology. The level of development of technology (and technology) serves as the main indicator of the degree of mastery of the forces of nature by society. "Technology reveals the active relationship of man to nature, the direct process of the production of his life"

Subjects of labor - the substance of nature, which a person influences in the process of labor in order to adapt it for personal or industrial consumption. The subject of labor, which has already undergone the influence of human labor, but is intended for further processing, is called Raw Material. Some finished products can also enter the production process as a subject of labor (for example, grapes in the wine industry, animal oil in confectionery industry). "If we consider the whole process from the point of view of its result - the product, then both the means of labor and the object of labor both act as means of production, and labor itself - as productive labor"

According to Karl Marx, the aggregate of factors of production act as productive forces that are inextricably linked with production relations. Some characterize the material content of the process social production and others have its historically defined shape. Evolving, each stage of development of the productive forces characterized by the type of production relations constitutes a unique mode of production.

Non-Marxist economic theorists do not agree with the position of Karl Marx that new value is created only by hired workers, but believe that all factors of production take an equal part in its creation. Thus, Alfred Marshall wrote: “capital in general and labor in general interact in the production of a national dividend and receive their incomes from it, respectively, to the extent of their (marginal) productivity. Their mutual dependence is the closest; capital is dead without labor; the worker, without the help of his own or someone else's capital, will not live long. When labor is vigorous, capital reaps rich fruits and grows rapidly; thanks to capital and knowledge, the average worker in the Western world eats, dresses, and even provides shelter in many ways better than the princes of old. Collaboration between capital and labor is as necessary as collaboration between spinner and weaver; little priority on the spinner's side, but it doesn't give him any advantage. The prosperity of each of them is closely related to the strength and energy of the other, although each of them can benefit temporarily, or even permanently, at the expense of the other, a slightly larger share of the national dividend. "

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See what "Production Factors" are in other dictionaries:

The resources used in production, on which the quantity and volume of output depend to a decisive extent. The demand for factors of production is derivative: it exists only insofar as they participate in the process ... ... Financial vocabulary

Production factors- 1. Conditions of production activity (broad interpretation). In this sense, factors are classified as organizational; material and technical; economic; social. ... 2. Manufacturing resources ... Economics and Mathematics Dictionary

factors of production- 1. Conditions of production activity (broad interpretation). In this sense, factors are classified as organizational; material and technical; economic; social. ... 2. Production resources that become an element of the process ... ... Technical translator's guide

FACTORS OF PRODUCTION, resources used to create life benefits. In accordance with classical economic theory, the main types of production factors are: labor, land, capital, entrepreneurial ability, information. ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

- (factors of production) Resources required for the production of national economic goods (goods). This is land (including all natural resources), labor (including all the work and abilities of people), capital (including all money, assets, equipment, raw materials ... Business glossary

The resources used in production, on which the quantity and volume of output depend to a decisive extent. These factors include: land, labor, capital, entrepreneurial activity (entrepreneurial ability). Raisberg B ... Economic Dictionary

PRODUCTION FACTORS- modern economic theory divides the resources necessary for the production of goods (goods, services) into groups - factors of production. The first of these is labor. The factor land (natural resources) is understood to expand. meaning (as a place of residence ... ... Financial and credit encyclopedic dictionary

factors of production- 2.1.3 factors of production: Factors necessary for the transformation, transportation, storage and inspection of raw materials, parts, parts and final products. Source: GOST R ISO 14258 2008: Industrial automated systems... Concepts and rules ... Dictionary-reference book of terms of normative and technical documentation

PRODUCTION FACTORS- - everything that, participating in the production process, produces goods and services. There are different approaches to the definition of phytosanitary p. And their classification. The classical school distinguishes three main groups: labor, land, capital. In the Marxist theory of physical education ... ... Economics from A to Z: Thematic guide

Production factors- FACTORS OF PRODUCTION Resources used by the company for the production of a particular product or service: natural resources, labor resources and capital. For the production of a given quantity of products, the company selects such a combination of resources, with ... ... Dictionary of Economics

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Design of technical systems for biogas production in animal husbandry. Tutorial. The stamp of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, Aleksandrov Igor Yurievich, Zemskov Viktor Ivanovich. The manual covers state of the art methods of processing organic waste, technological factors influencing the biogas production process. Much attention is paid to ...

Most economic goods are created in the production process. Production- This is the process of creating an economic good and the accompanying transformation of resources. (Resources are anything that goes into producing goods and services.)

All production is usually divided into two areas:

− scope material production , including the production of goods in material form (coal, shoes, machine tools, fabrics, etc.) and the provision of material services (transport, mail, dry cleaning, laundry, etc.);

− non-production sphere, including spiritual, intellectual activity, the result of which are intangible benefits ( scientific discoveries, inventions, books, paintings), and the provision of intangible services (education, health care, culture, etc.).

The production structure can be schematically represented as follows

The goods created in production serve as a means of satisfying needs. In this way, the ultimate goal of all production are the needs of people. The very process of satisfying needs is consumption.

In order to produce any good, resources are needed.

The resources involved in the production of goods and services are called factors of production. Main factors of production Is labor, land, capital and business.

Work(L) - expedient activities of people aimed at meeting their needs. It is the expenditure of physical and mental energy that allows you to create goods and services useful for society.

Land(T) - all natural resources that are used in production. When people speak of land as a factor of production, they mean arable and other lands, forests, minerals, water, etc.

Capital(C) - durable goods used for the production of other goods. Capital includes: buildings, structures, machines, equipment and other means of production. Capital allows you to increase the return of land and labor in the production process.

Business activities(E) - expedient activities of people aimed at making a profit. The functions of an entrepreneur in production are:

- the combination of factors of production in one production process;

- finding the most effective options for combining these factors;

- taking on risk (an entrepreneur risks his capital, money, authority, etc.)

All factors of production can be viewed as:

− real, or property (land and capital);

− personal(labor and business).

Personal factors of production embody both the innate abilities of people and the knowledge, skills, and abilities acquired by them in the process of learning and practical activity. These intellectual abilities and practical skills of people, which increase their production capabilities, form human capital... Investments in human capital (education, retraining, advanced training) are of particular importance in modern world... The return on investment in human capital exceeds the return on investment in material factors of production, therefore, the growth rate of investment in personal factors of production today exceeds the growth rate of investment in material factors of production.

You must immediately pay attention to the fact that money is not a factor of production. Money cannot be made, but it is necessary. condition of acquisition factors of production. Funds are used to buy factors of production from their owners, and thereby provide a real opportunity to combine resources in a single production process.

The problem of production is that human needs are practically unlimited, whereas in any society there is limited quantity resources... The scarcity of resources is an objective fact that dictates the need for appropriate economic behavior of people. At each moment, the amount of labor, natural, capital and technical resources that can take part in production is rigidly fixed. The limitedness of all economic resources remains and even increases with the development of society. It's not just due to exhaustion natural resources, but also by the fact that needs are constantly increasing, giving impetus to the production of new goods and services that require new resources.

The consequence of limited resources is:

- the need to decide on the preference of one or another direction of the use of resources;

- the emergence of competition, rivalry, competition for access to more effective resources;

- the need for effective and, if possible full use resources of society;

- the possibility of an equalizing distribution of resources (rationing).

Factors- these are the main reasons and conditions for the flow of production. The whole essence of production consists in using production factors and creating with their help, on their basis, an economic product. So it is the driving force of production, the components of the production potential.

In the simplest view, the totality of production factors is reduced to the triad land, labor, capital embodying the participation of natural and labor resources, means of production in the creation of a product economic activity... As a fourth factor, a number of authors of books on economics cite entrepreneurship. But the expansion of the number of production factors from three to four does not exhaust their possible list. Let us dwell on the analysis of production factors in more detail.

Natural factor reflects the impact natural conditions on production processes, the use in the production of natural sources of raw materials and energy, minerals, land and water resources, air, natural flora and fauna. The natural environment as a factor of production embodies the possibility of involving in the production of certain types and volumes of natural resources, which are converted into raw materials, from which all the variety of material and material products of production are made. Nature, including not only the Earth, but also the Sun, is an energetic storehouse of production, which, as you know, is not able to function without being fed with energy. The natural environment, the Earth is at the same time a production site on which and in which the means of production are located, workers work. Finally, nature is important for production as a factor not only in current production, but also in future production.

For all the importance, significance of the natural factor in relation to production, it acts as a more passive than labor and capital. Natural resources, being basically the initial raw material, undergo transformation into materials and then into the main means of production, acting as their own active, creative factors. Therefore, in a number of factorial models, the natural factor as such often does not appear in an explicit form, which in no way diminishes its importance for production.

Labor factor represented in the production process by the labor of workers employed in it. The combination of labor with the rest of the factors of production initiates manufacturing process as such. At the same time, the factor "labor" embodies all the variety of types and forms of labor activity, directing production, accompanying it and representing it in the form of direct participation in the transformation of matter, energy, information. So that all participants, directly or indirectly involved in production, contribute their work to it, and from this general labor both the course of production and its final result depend.

Although labor itself is a factor of production, given the pronounced resource nature of economic factors of production, quite often in the form of a production factor, not labor itself is considered as an expenditure of physical and mental energy of a person or working time, but labor resources, the number of people employed in production or the able-bodied population. This approach is often used in macroeconomic factor models. It is also important to know and understand that the labor factor of production activity is manifested not only in the number of employees and labor costs, but also, to no less extent, in the quality and efficiency of their labor, in labor efficiency. In real calculations, not only the expended labor is taken into account, but also its productivity.

Factor "" represents the means of production involved in production and directly involved in it. The labor factor in the form of labor resources, labor force, participates in production only by one side of its existence, the so-called living labor. At the same time, labor for a person is rather one of the conditions, and not a goal, purpose, a way of his existence. As for the means of production, they were created for production, they are intended and completely devote themselves to production. In this sense, capital as a factor of production is even higher than the labor factor.

Capital as a factor of production can act in different types, shapes and differently measured. It has already been noted that in productive capital, and physical, and turning into it money capital... Physical capital is presented in the form of fixed capital (fixed assets of production), but it is legal to attach to it and working capital(working capital), which also plays the role of a factor of production as the most important material resource and a source of production activity (some authors do not classify materials as capital and consider them as an independent factor). When considering long-term, future factors of production, capital investments, investments in production are often considered as such. This approach is legitimate, since in the long run, monetary and other investments in production turn into production factors.

The fourth factor of production reflects the impact entrepreneurial activity on the results of production activities. Entrepreneurial initiative has a beneficial effect on the results of production activities. At the same time, it is rather difficult to establish quantitatively and measure the effect of this factor. The factor itself, called entrepreneurship or entrepreneurial activity, does not have generally accepted quantitative measures, unlike labor and capital. For this reason alone, the impact of this factor on the volume or other results of production has to be judged more qualitatively than quantitatively. Entrepreneurial initiative increases the return on the labor factor in production.

Let's name another significant production factor. Generally it is called scientific and technical level of production... In its economic essence, the scientific and technical (technical and technological) level expresses the degree of technical and technological perfection of production. In the next section of this chapter, this factor is discussed in more detail. A high scientific and technical level of production leads to an increase in the return to the labor factor (labor productivity) and capital (fixed assets), i.e. manifests itself through other factors. At the same time, the scientific and technical level of production is also an independently acting factor. By contributing to an increase in the technical level and quality of manufactured products, technical and technological progress allows an increase in demand for it, and this leads to an increase in prices and sales, the cost of the product sold. So scientific, technical, technological progress, raising the technical level of production, will create another significant production factor in its person.

As mentioned above, the factors can be distinguished as independent, considered separately from capital (fixed assets) materials used in production.

Production function and its factors

The theory of production factors relies to a certain extent on the use of a mathematical, model apparatus, which are factor models in the form of a mathematical relationship that links the value of the resulting production result with the values of production factors that caused this result. The most common type of such factorial models has become the so-called. A typical type of such a function is dependence, a formula linking the maximum output (production volume) Q with the factors that this release depends on. V general view the production function can be represented in the following notation:

Q = Q (L, K, M, T ...),

where L,K, M, T ... - factors of production: labor, capital, materials, technical level, etc.

Production functions can be used in macroeconomics, where they reflect the dependence of the total volume of production in monetary terms on the general, integral values of factors of production calculated for the economy as a whole. At the same time, production functions are applicable to individual industries, types of production, and even to enterprise-wide production. If the production function is used in microeconomics, then it usually reflects the relationship between the volume of production (its maximum value) and the values used in the production of factors.

The Cobb-Douglas production function is widely known, representing a common economic model. This function has the form

Q = a L α К β,

Q- the volume of products manufactured for a certain period, for example, annual output;
a- constant coefficient;
L- labor factor, volumetric indicator of the size of labor resources;
TO- the amount of capital used (the value of fixed assets or the amount of capital investment in production);
α,β - exponents satisfying the relation α + β = 1.

The given production function represents a two-factor model, in which only the variables labor and capital affect the volume of production. Desired production volume Q can be obtained with various combinations of factors L and K, which can be seen in Fig. 1, which shows the curves characterizing the combinations of the values of variable factors that ensure the receipt of a given volume of output.

Rice. 1. Volumes of production at different meanings factors of production

So, for example, to achieve the production volume Q =Q 0 possible with combinations of factors L 1 and K 1, L 2 and K 2, L 3 and K 3, etc. If it is necessary to increase the volume of output to values (Q = Q 1, or Q = Q 2, then with a given coefficient a and indicators α and β the production function will have to increase the values of factors L and K and find their other combinations, corresponding, for example, to the position of the point A on the curve Q = Q 1, or points V on the curve Q= Q 2 .

Curves, the points of which correspond to combinations of production factors that ensure the release of the same volume of production, are called. So in fig. 1 shows three isoquants.

Production functions are included in the arsenal of the economic and mathematical apparatus of micro- and macroeconomics, which is used mainly in theoretical research, but they also have practical applications.

The main reasons for production activities and the conditions in which the creation of an economic product takes place are called factors of production. They are in a sense driving forces production, an integral part of the production capacity.

In the simplest case, the factors of production are understood as the triad "labor, land, capital", which embodies the labor and natural resources involved in creating a product. Recently, entrepreneurship has been named as one of the significant factors. However, even such a list will not be exhaustive.

In Marxism, the conditions of production include labor, the object and means of labor, considering personal and material factors. The entire set of a person's abilities to work is personal. Marxist methodology classifies the means of production as material complex system, in which a special place is given to the organization of production and technology. The latter is understood as the interaction between all factors of production.

The main factors of production in marginalist theory are:

Natural resources;
work;
capital;
entrepreneurship;
scientific and technical factor.

Natural factor

The natural factor embodies the natural conditions in which production processes take place. Substance, minerals, earth, water, air, plant and animal world... As a factor of production, the natural environment allows the use of natural resources, which serve as raw materials, in the manufacture of a product. All the variety of material products are made on the basis of such raw materials.

The energy basis of production is the Earth and the Sun. At the same time, the planet becomes a production site, where the means of production are located, where workers work.

Land has become one of the most unique resources at present, because its supply is limited. This type of material production conditions is an area where there are natural resources and minerals. The usefulness of a land resource is assessed by its ability to be suitable for agricultural work and biological reproduction.

The natural factor acts as a passive component in the triad. However, in the course of transformations, objects of nature pass into the main means of production and gradually acquire an active role. In some factorial economic models, the natural factor is taken into account in an implicit form, which by no means diminishes the degree of its influence on production processes.

Labor factor

Labor is presented in a number of factors of production as an element that is designed to initiate the production process. This category is represented by the labor of workers who are directly involved in the creation of goods. At the same time, the concept of "labor" embodies a varied number of types of activity that directs production and accompanies it at all stages. Labor consists in the direct participation of a person in the transformation of resources (energy, matter, information). People contribute to the production process with physical and mental effort. All its participants bring their labor into the production process, each form of labor ultimately affects the result.

In macroeconomic models that use the resource approach, when considering the main factors of production, it is often not labor as such that is singled out, but labor resources, that is, the able-bodied population or total number those who are engaged in production activities. It is important to understand that the labor factor is manifested, among other things, in the quality of labor, in its efficiency, in labor efficiency.

Labor is the most important economic category, since its costs determine the effectiveness of an established organization of production. Through labor activity, a person actively influences the subject of labor. The intensity of the labor process affects the labor intensity and the amount of time spent on the manufacture of the product. This data makes it possible to identify the problems faced by the production.

The labor force determines other economic categories - the unemployment rate and employment. The structure of the labor force includes all people who, in one way or another, take part in production in accordance with their labor skills. Human activity has a peculiarity: the labor force is formed over the years, it requires continuous renewal. For a successful career, an employee must maintain useful skills and always be in the right physical shape.

Capital as a factor of production

Capital is understood as means of production that are involved and directly involved in the manufacture of an economic product. Capital can appear in production activities in a wide variety of forms; there may be different ways of accounting for it. If human labor creates only a condition for production, then capital becomes the goal, purpose and mode of existence of production activity. Therefore, capital is often ranked above labor in importance.

This factor is expressed in both physical and monetary capital. Physical capital is the main means of production. Working capital also become the most important material resource and source of activities for the production of an economic product. In the long term, the factor also includes capital investment.

In short, capital refers to any type of property used to make a profit. For this very purpose, since the emergence of an industrial society, investments (capital investments) directed to production have been widely used in it. In its material and material form, the invested funds turn into fixed assets and become factors of the production process.

According to a number of economists, after labor, capital ranks second among other conditions of success. economic activity... Recently, more and more often they allocate human capital, including knowledge, skills, professional experience that the employee possesses. Other researchers do not consider it expedient to introduce such a category, since its content is largely covered by the labor factor.

Entrepreneurship as a factor of production

Entrepreneurial activity and initiative have a beneficial effect on the results of production activities. The difficulty lies in quantitatively establishing the effect of the influence of this factor. It is extremely difficult to measure this influence. Therefore, this factor is judged, as a rule, exclusively in terms of quality. The importance of entrepreneurial activity is that it increases and enhances the return on the labor factor.

Entrepreneurial ability consists in the ability to combine all factors of production in order to create a product with maximum efficiency activities. Being an entrepreneur means:

be able to make decisions;
take reasonable risks;
be able to organize workers to complete tasks.

Main factors of production and types of income

Each of the dominant production factors creates a certain type of income:

corresponds to labor wage;
land - rent;
capital - interest;
business - profit.

Scientific and technical level of production

With the development of science, the scientific and technical level of production began to be included in the number of production factors. It expresses the degree of technological equipment of production, its technical perfection. The influence of this factor extends to the growth of labor productivity and the efficiency of capital use. Scientific and technological advances contribute to increased demand for products and increased sales.

This category is also often considered innovation activity... A technological innovation introduced into production very often becomes the factor that makes it possible to qualitatively improve the production process and makes it possible to bring fundamentally new products to the market.

In the conditions of the formation of a post-industrial society, information becomes an essential factor of production. It is one of the most important resources that is reflected in economic processes. Informational resources find application in any part of the system of productive forces, becoming an integral element of living labor.

Production factors(resource) - those resources that are involved in the production of something;

Information a specific form of information is technology.

Work is an expedient human activity to create economic benefits, a manifestation of the totality of mental and physical abilities of a person as a whole.

Capital refers to production (capital) resources. It includes the totality of benefits created by the past human labor: buildings, structures, machines, machines, tools, etc. Stocks, bonds, money, bank deposits do not belong to this factor of production.

Land refers to natural resources. As a factor of production, it covers all agricultural land and urban land allocated for housing or industrial development, as well as the totality of natural conditions necessary for the production of goods and services.

Entrepreneurial talent assumes the special abilities of a person, consisting in his ability to:

· Organize the production and release of goods and services by combining all the necessary factors of production;

· Make basic decisions on production management and business conduct;

· to risk in cash, time, work, business reputation because the activity in the market is associated with great uncertainty, and the result is not guaranteed;

· To be an innovator, that is, to introduce new technologies, new products, methods of organizing production.

However, the activity of an entrepreneur, with all its features, can be considered as a kind of labor.

One of the key economic resources for the present stage development of society is information.

Possession of reliable information is a prerequisite for solving the problems facing an economic entity. However, even complete information is not a guarantee of success. The ability to use the information obtained to make the best decision under the current circumstances characterizes such a resource as knowledge... The carriers of this resource are qualified personnel in the field of management, sales and customer service, technical maintenance of goods. It is this resource that gives the greatest return in business. "What distinguishes a strong company from a weak one is, first of all, the level of qualifications of its specialists and management personnel, their knowledge, motivations and aspirations."

In a market economy, all of the above economic resources are freely bought, sold and brought to their owners special (factor) income:

· Rent (land.);

· Interest (capital);

· Wages (labor);

· Profit (entrepreneurial ability).

German economist and philosopher of the 19th century. Karl Marx singled out personal and material factors of production, while the person himself acts as a personal factor, as the bearer of labor power, and the material factor of production means the means of production, which in turn consist of means of labor and objects of labor.

A means of labor is "... a thing or a complex of things that a person places between himself and the object of labor and which serve for him as a conductor of his influences on this object." Means of labor, and, above all, instruments of labor, include machines, machine tools, tools with which a person influences nature, as well as industrial buildings, land, canals, roads, etc. The use and creation of instruments of labor is a characteristic feature of labor. human activities. The means of labor in a broader sense include all material conditions of labor, without which it cannot be performed. The general condition of labor is land, the conditions of labor are also production buildings, roads, etc. The results of social cognition of nature are embodied in the means of labor and the processes of their production use, in technology and technology. The level of development of technology (and technology) serves as the main indicator of the degree of mastery of the forces of nature by society. "Technology reveals the active relationship of man to nature, the direct process of the production of his life"

Subjects of labor - the substance of nature, which a person influences in the process of labor in order to adapt it for personal or industrial consumption. The subject of labor, which has already undergone the influence of human labor, but is intended for further processing, is called Raw Material. Some finished products can also enter the production process as a subject of labor (for example, grapes in the wine industry, animal oil in the confectionery industry). "If we consider the whole process from the point of view of its result - the product, then both the means of labor and the object of labor both act as means of production, and labor itself - as productive labor"

According to Karl Marx, the aggregate of factors of production act as productive forces that are inextricably linked with production relations. Some characterize the material and material content of the process of social production, while others characterize its historically determined form. Evolving, each stage of development of the productive forces characterized by the type of production relations constitutes a unique mode of production.

Question 2. Production function.

Production function

Manufacturing cannot create products out of nothing. The production process is associated with the consumption of various resources. The number of resources includes everything that is necessary for production activities - raw materials, energy, labor, equipment, and space.

In order to describe the behavior of a firm, it is necessary to know how much product it can produce using resources in certain volumes. We will proceed from the assumption that the firm produces a homogeneous product, the amount of which is measured in natural units - tons, pieces, meters, etc. production function.

But an enterprise can carry out the production process in different ways, using different technological methods, different options for organizing production, so that the amount of product obtained at the same cost of resources can be different. Firm executives should reject lower-yield production options if more yield can be obtained for the same cost of each type of resource. Likewise, they should reject options that require a high cost of at least one resource without increasing the yield and reducing the cost of other resources. Options rejected for these reasons are called technically ineffective.

Let's say your company manufactures refrigerators. To make the case, you need to cut out the sheet metal. Depending on how the standard iron sheet will be marked and cut, more or less parts can be cut out of it; accordingly, for the manufacture of a certain number of refrigerators, less or more standard iron sheets will be required. At the same time, the consumption of all other materials, labor, equipment, electricity will remain unchanged. Such a production option, which can be improved by more rational cutting of iron, should be recognized as technically ineffective and rejected.

Technically efficient they call production options that cannot be improved either by increasing the production of a product without increasing the consumption of resources, or by reducing the cost of any resource without reducing output and without increasing the cost of other resources. The production function only considers technically efficient options. Its meaning is the greatest the amount of product that a company can produce for a given amount of resource consumption.

Let us first consider the simplest case: an enterprise produces a single type of product and consumes a single type of resource. An example of such production is rather difficult to find in reality. Even if we consider a company that provides services at home for clients without the use of any equipment and materials (massage, tutoring) and consumes only the labor of employees, we would have to assume that employees walk around clients on foot (without using transport services) and negotiate with clients without the help of mail and telephone.

So, the enterprise, spending a resource in the amount X, can produce product in quantity q... Production function

q = f(x)

(1)

establishes a connection between these quantities. Note that here, as in other lectures, all volumetric quantities are quantities of the type of flow: the volume of resource consumption is measured by the number of resource units per unit of time, and the output volume is measured by the number of product units per unit of time.

In fig. 1 shows a graph of the production function for the case under consideration. All points on the graph correspond to technically efficient options, in particular points A and V... Dot WITH corresponds to ineffective, and the point D- an unattainable option.

Rice. one. Production function in the case of a single resource

The production function of the form (1), which establishes the dependence of the volume of production on the volume of costs of a single resource, can be used not only for illustrative purposes. It is also useful when the consumption of only one resource can change, and the costs of all other resources, for one reason or another, should be considered as fixed. In these cases, the dependence of the volume of production on the costs of a single variable factor is of interest.

Much more variety appears when considering the production function, which depends on the volumes of the two consumed resources:

The graph of a function of two variables cannot be plotted on a plane. A production function of the form (2) can be represented in a three-dimensional Cartesian space, two coordinates of which ( x 1 and x 2) are plotted on the horizontal axes and correspond to the cost of resources, and the third ( q) is deposited on the vertical axis and corresponds to the release of the product (Fig. 2). The graph of the production function is the surface of the "hill", which rises with the growth of each of the coordinates. x 1 and x 2. Construction in Fig. 1 in this case can be considered as a vertical section of the "hill" by a plane parallel to the axis x 1 and the corresponding fixed value of the second coordinate x 2 = x * 2 .

Rice. 2. Production function in case of two resources

The horizontal section of the "hill" combines production options characterized by a fixed product output q = q * at various combinations of the costs of the first and second resources. If horizontal section draw the surface of the "hill" separately on a plane with coordinates x 1 and x 2, a curve will be obtained that combines such combinations of resource costs that make it possible to obtain a given fixed volume of product output (Fig. 3). This curve is called the isoquant of the production function (from the Greek. isoz- the same and lat... quantum - how much).

Rice. 3. Isoquant of production function

Let us assume that the production function describes the output depending on the input of labor and capital. The same amount of production can be obtained with different combinations of the costs of these resources. You can use a small number of machines (that is, get along with a small investment of capital), but you will have to spend a lot of labor; it is possible, on the contrary, to mechanize certain operations, to increase the number of machines and thereby reduce labor costs. If, for all such combinations, the largest possible volume of output remains constant, then these combinations are depicted by dots lying on the same isoquant.

Fixing the volume of product output at a different level, we get another isoquant of the same production function. Having made a series of horizontal cuts at different heights, we get the so-called isoquant map(Figure 4) is the most common graphical representation of a two-argument production function. It looks like a geographical map, on which the terrain is depicted by contours (otherwise - iso-gypsum) - lines connecting points lying at the same height.

Rice. 4. Isoquant map

It is easy to see that the production function is in many ways similar to the utility function in the theory of consumption, the isoquant to the indifference curve, the isoquant map to the indifference map. Later we will see that the properties and characteristics of the production function have many analogies in the theory of consumption. And this is not just a matter of similarity. In relation to resources, the firm behaves like a consumer, and the production function characterizes precisely this side of production - production as consumption. A particular set of resources is useful for production insofar as it allows you to obtain an appropriate amount of product output. We can say that the values of the production function express the utility for the production of the corresponding set of resources. Unlike consumer utility, this "utility" has a quite definite quantitative measure - it is determined by the volume of products produced.

The fact that the values of the production function refer to technically efficient options and characterize the highest output when a given set of resources is consumed also has an analogy in the theory of consumption. The consumer can use the acquired goods in different ways. The usefulness of the purchased set of goods is determined in such a way of using them in which the consumer receives the greatest satisfaction.

However, with all the noted similarities between consumer utility and "utility" expressed by the values of the production function, these are completely different concepts. The consumer himself, proceeding only from his own preferences, determines how useful a particular product is for him - by buying or rejecting it. A set of production resources will ultimately prove useful to the extent that the product that is produced using these resources is approved by the consumer.

Since the production function has the most general properties of the utility function, we can further consider its main properties without repeating the detailed considerations given in Part II.

We will assume that an increase in the costs of one of the resources with the constant costs of the other allows you to increase the output. This means that the production function is an increasing function of each of its arguments. Through each point of the resource plane with coordinates X 1 ,X 2 is the only isoquant. All isoquants have a negative slope. The isoquant corresponding to a higher product yield is located to the right and above the isoquant for a lower yield. Finally, all isoquants are assumed to be convex in the direction of the origin.

In fig. 5 shows some isoquant maps characterizing various situations arising from the production consumption of two resources. Rice. 5, a corresponds to the absolute substitution of resources. In the case shown in Fig. 5, b, the first resource can be completely replaced by the second one: isoquant points located on the axis X 2 show the amount of the second resource that allows one or another product output to be obtained without using the first resource. The use of the first resource allows one to reduce the costs of the second one, but it is impossible to completely replace the second resource with the first one. Rice. 5, v depicts a situation in which both resources are needed and neither can be completely replaced by the other. Finally, the case shown in Fig. 5, G, is characterized by the absolute complementarity of resources.

Rice. 5. Examples of isoquant maps

A production function that depends on two arguments is pretty intuitive and relatively easy to calculate. It should be noted that the economy uses the production functions of various objects - enterprises, industries, national and world economy. Most often these are functions of the form (3); sometimes a third argument is added - the cost of natural resources ( N):

q = f(L, K, N).

This makes sense if the amount of natural resources involved in production activities is variable.

In applied economic research and in economic theory production functions are used different types... Their features and differences will be discussed in Section 3. In applied calculations, the requirements of practical computability force us to restrict ourselves to a small number of factors, and these factors are considered in aggregate - "labor" without a division by professions and qualifications, "capital" without taking into account its specific composition, etc. e. In a theoretical analysis of production, one can abstract from the difficulties of practical computability.

The theoretical approach requires each type of resource to be considered absolutely homogeneous. Raw materials of various grades should be considered as different kinds resources, just like machines of various brands or labor, differing in professional and qualifications. Thus, the production function used in theory is a function of a large number of arguments:

q = f(x 1 , x 2 , ..., x n).

(4)

The same approach was applied in the theory of consumption, where the number of types of consumed goods was not limited in any way.

Everything that was said earlier about the production function of two arguments can be transferred to a function of the form (4), of course, with reservations regarding the dimension. The isoquants of function (4) are not plane curves, but n-dimensional surfaces. Nevertheless, we will continue to use "flat isoquants" - both for illustrative purposes and as a convenient means of analysis in cases when the costs of two resources are variable, and the rest are considered fixed.

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