LAW OF DIMINISHING MARGINAL RETURNS: A principle stating that as more and more of a variable input is combined with a fixed input in short-run production, the marginal product of the variable input eventually declines. This is THE economic principle underlying the analysis of short-run production for a firm. Among a host of other things, it offers an explanation for the upward-sloping market supply curve. How does the law of diminishing marginal returns help us understand supply? The law of supply and the upward-sloping supply curve indicate that a firm needs to receive higher prices to produce and sell larger quantities. Why do they need higher prices?

     See also | increasing marginal returns | decreasing marginal returns | marginal product | marginal cost | short-run production | supply curve | fixed input | variable input |

LAW OF DIMINISHING MARGINAL RETURNS, AmosWEB GLOSS*arama, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2025. [Accessed: February 15, 2025].

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Perfect competition is an idealized market structure that achieves an efficient allocation of resources. This efficiency is achieved because the profit-maximizing quantity of output produced by a perfectly competitive firm results in the equality between price and marginal cost. In the short run, this involves the equality between price and short-run marginal cost. In the long run, this is seen with the equality between price and long-run marginal cost at the minimum efficient scale of production.

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