DECREASING MARGINAL RETURNS: In the short-run production of a firm, an increase in the variable input results in a decrease in the marginal product of the variable input. Decreasing marginal returns typically surface after the first few quantities of a variable input are added to a fixed input. Compare this with increasing marginal returns. You should also compare this with diseconomies of scale associated with long-run production.

     See also | short-run production | law of diminishing marginal returns | fixed input | variable input | marginal product | average product | total product | short-run production | long-run production |

DECREASING MARGINAL RETURNS, AmosWEB GLOSS*arama, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2026. [Accessed: October 7, 2026].

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The family of short-run cost curves consisting of average total cost, average variable cost, and marginal cost, all of which have U-shapes. Each is U-shaped because it begins with relatively high but falling cost for small quantities of output, reaches a minimum value, then has rising cost at large quantities of output. Although the average fixed cost curve is not U-shaped, it is occasionally included with the other three just for sake of completeness.

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