VARIABLE INPUT: An input whose quantity can be changed in the time period under consideration. This should be immediately compared and contrasted with fixed input. The most common example of a variable input is labor. A variable input provides the extra inputs that a firm needs to expand short-run production. In contrast, a fixed input, like capital, provides the capacity constraint in production. As larger quantities of a variable input, like labor, are added to a fixed input like capital, the variable input becomes less productive. This is, by the way, the law of diminishing marginal returns.

     See also | input | output | fixed input | short-run production | law of diminishing marginal returns |

VARIABLE INPUT, AmosWEB GLOSS*arama, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2025. [Accessed: July 18, 2025].

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A phase of the business cycle characterized by a general period of declining economic activity. A recession is one of two basic business cycle phases. The other is expansion. The transition from recession to expansion is termed a trough and the transition from expansion to recession is termed a peak. The technical term for recession, which is generally used by economists and policy makers, is contraction.

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