What Is the Marginal Product of Labor?

Marginal product refers to the output increased by adding one unit of production factor, and marginal cost refers to the total cost of adding one unit of production. Assume that there are two kinds of production factors of commodity x: A and B. When B remains unchanged, adding one unit of production factor A can increase the output by 1, (such as A is labor and B is machinery and equipment). Cost is the price of a unit of production factor A in the market. If an increase in A results in an increase in output of 2, the corresponding marginal cost is 1/2 the price of factor A.

Marginal output

Marginal product refers to an increase of one unit

Marginal product (marginal product, MP for short), also called

The formula for calculating the marginal output is:

MP =

Without major changes in production technology,

Marginal Production Enterprise

In economics, there is a term called the value of marginal output, which is the marginal output of an input multiplied by the market price of the product, and the marginal output refers to the increase in output caused by an increase in one unit of labor. For example, when an enterprise increases the number of workers from one to two, it produces apples from 100 to 180 boxes, and the marginal output of the second person is 80 boxes. In the production process of a product, the number of workers employed by a competitive, profit-maximizing enterprise must reach the point where the marginal output value of labor is equal to the wages of the workers. The increase in the value of marginal output means that more workers are needed to reach the point of decreasing workers' wages. So the curve of the value added of marginal output is also the curve of labor demand. In order to increase labor demand, one of the most powerful measures is to increase the marginal output of labor, that is, to improve the labor survival rate and improve production technology.

Marginal output employment impact

China's population is growing and technology is advancing rapidly. It was previously thought that the existence of the latter would lead to a reduction in the demand for workers, because technological progress means that fewer people can produce the same product, and more people will be unemployed. The original thinking was under the premise that the total production was unchanged, and under the conditions of market competition, it is impossible for companies seeking to maximize profits to meet quantitative production. They always think of ways to increase output and meet Chinese demand. In opening up the international market, the total amount of products is actually growing rapidly. Under this premise, technological progress has instead promoted employment.

Marginal productive population problem

China's population problem is a very complex issue and cannot be handled in a simplified manner. On the one hand, the population is a consumer and consumes limited human resources. On the other hand, people are the only workers accompanied by wisdom. They can create wealth, while the latter is the main reason for human development. China's population is large, but it is in line with China's existing production scale, or China's existing production scale is determined by the size of the population, so-called how much people produce, how much land there is. Existing population problems in China are mainly excessive rural labor force and low labor productivity in rural areas, resulting in insufficient employment. So if you are learning and selling now, use the principle of marginal output to determine labor demand. The most urgent task to solve the population problem is to improve the rural labor survival rate, or transfer the rural population to cities, create new employment channels, and take advantage of the non-primary industry Marginal output addresses the problem of the remaining population of primary industries with low marginal output.