Question

Consider the following chart illustrating the connection between hours Claudia spends studying (variable input) and her score on the next test (total product). Fill in the empty boxes for the marginal product and avg product in columns D and E.

A	B	C	D	E
Number of	Fixed Input	Total Product	Marginal	Avg Prod
hours spent	(Book and	(# of test questions	Product of	of study
studying	Notes)	answered correctly)	study time	time
0	1	5	*****	*****
1	1	7
2	1	11
3	1	18
4	1	29
5	1	39
6	1	45
7	1	47
8	1	47

Does this production process (from above) exhibit diminishing marginal returns to studying at any point? If so, at what point?  

Answer 1

Answer

Marginal product of study time = Change in Total Product / Change in number of hours spent studying

Average Product of study time = Total Product / Number of hours spent studying

The final table is shown below,

Number of hours spent studying	Fixed Input( Book and Notes)	Total Product(# of test questions answered correctly)	Marginal Product of study time	Average Product of study time
0	1	5	-	-
1	1	7	2	7
2	1	11	4	5.50
3	1	18	7	6
4	1	29	11	7.25
5	1	39	10	7.80
6	1	45	6	7.50
7	1	47	2	6.71
8	1	47	0	5.88

The production process exhibits sdiminishing marginal returns to studying after the sudy time of 4 hours. From the above table, we see that until the 4 hours of study, the marginal product of study time gradually increases. After that the marginal product of study time gradually decreases. So, between 4th and 5th point or at 5 hours of study, the table exhibits diminishing marginal returns to studying.

_____________________________________________________________________