ECON 202 Chapter 4: Chapter 4.2

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The area under the marginal product curve represents the total output of cloth
A similar diagram can be made for food and then combined with cloth to derive the PPF of the
economy in figure 4
-
3. the PPF shows how much food it can produce for any given output of cloth
and vice versa
Lower right quadrant is the figure 4
-
1 flipped around
food
If all labour were used in food, Lf would be L, and Lc would be 0
This line AA has a slope of
-
1
Lower left shows the labour allocation between the two sectors
With point 2 In the bottom left, we are using L2c hours in cloth and L2f hours in food. The
corresponding outputs are Q2c and Q2f, which lead to point 2' in the upper right quadrant.
In Ricardian model, labour is the only factor of production so the PPF is a straight line because
opportunity cost of one in terms of the other is constant
These diminishing returns are the crucial difference between the two models.
In specific factors model, additional factors of production changes the shape of PPF (PP) to a
curve. The curvature of PP reflects the diminishing returns to labour in each sector
To increase cloth output by one unit, then we must increase labour input by 1/MPLc hours
Each hour of labour shifted out of food will lower output by MPLf.
If we shift one person hour from food to cloth, this extra input will increase output in that sector
by the marginal product of labour in cloth, MPLc
ECON 231 Page 3
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Document Summary

The area under the marginal product curve represents the total output of cloth. Lower right quadrant is the figure 4-1 flipped around. Upper left is the production of food flipped with a movement to the left = increase in labour in food. Lower left shows the labour allocation between the two sectors. If all labour were used in food, lf would be l, and lc would be 0. This line aa has a slope of -1. With point 2 in the bottom left, we are using l2c hours in cloth and l2f hours in food. The corresponding outputs are q2c and q2f, which lead to point 2" in the upper right quadrant. In ricardian model, labour is the only factor of production so the ppf is a straight line because opportunity cost of one in terms of the other is constant. In specific factors model, additional factors of production changes the shape of ppf (pp) to a curve.

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