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Lecture I: Basic Notions of Production Functions PDF Notes , PowerPoint, Slides, Mathematica Notebook, WMA

The Single Input Production Function
The Multiple Input Production Function
Readings

Beattie and Taylor Chapter 2

Lecture II: Definitions and Properties of the Production Function PDF Notes , PowerPoint, Slides, WMA

The Production Function Defined
Properties of the Production Function
Law of Variable Proportions
Measure of Simultaneous Input Variation: Elasticity of Scale.
Readings

Chambers Chapter 1
Varian Chapter 1
Mas-Colell et al. Chapter 5B

Lecture III: Substituting One Input for Another in Production PDF Notes, PowerPoint, Slides, Mathematica Notebook, WMA

Elasticity of Scale and Law of Variable Proportion [Chambers 1.6]
Measures of Input Substitution [Chambers 1.7]
Readings

Sato, Ryuzo and Tetsunori Koizumi "On the Elasticities of Substitution and Complementarity." Oxford Economic Papers 25(1)(Mar 1973): 44-56. JSTOR
Syrquin, Moshe and Gideon Hollender "Elasticities of Substitution and Complementarity: The General Case." Oxford Economic Papers 34(3)(Nov 1982): 515-19. JSTOR
Blackorby, Charles and R. Rober Russell "Will the Real Elasticity of Substitution Please Stand Up? (A Comparison of the Allen/Uzawa and Morishima Elasticities." American Economic Review 79(4)(Sep 1989): 882-888. JSTOR
Thompson, H. "Substitution Elasticities with Many Inputs." Applied Mathematics Letters 10(3)(May 1997): 123-27. ScienceDirect.
Allen Partials for CES Production Function PowerPoint
Maxima Code for CES Production Function MAC Batch File

Structure of Production Function [Chambers 1.8]

Lecture IV: Some Simple Production Mechanics PDF Notes, PowerPoint, Slides, WMA

Profit Maximization

Expansion Path
Derived Demand
Supply

Cost Minimization

Derived Demand (output conditional)
Cost Function
Marginal Cost

Readings

Varian Chapters 2,3,4
Mas-Colell et al. Chapter 5C