In: Economics
Suppose your production function for baseball bats is f(K, L) = L^1/5 K^1/5 and you are a profit maximizing price taker. Use minimizing costs to:
(a) Determine the conditional factor demands for labor and capital (L = g(w, r, y) =? and K = h(w, r, y) =?). Use these to derive the cost function.
(b) Derive the marginal and average cost functions.
(c) Derive the supply function for baseball bats.
(d) Given this supply function, use the conditional factor demands in part a) to determine the actual factor demands (L* = L*(w, r) =? and K = K*(w, r) =?)
The production function is given to be 
 . The cost of production would be 
 .
(a) The condition for cost minimization would
be that 
 or 
 or 
 or 
 or 
 . Now, putting it in the production function, we have 
 or 
 or 
 or 
 , and since 
 , we have 
 or 
 . These are the required labor and capital that would minimize
cost and maximize profit, for the given values.
The cost function would be 
 or 
 or 
 or 
 .
(b) The marginal cost would be 
 or 
 . The average cost would be 
 or 
 .
(c) The supply function would be where the
price is equal to the marginal cost, ie 
 or 
 or 
 .
(d) Putting 
 in the factor demands, we have 
 or 
 or 
 , and 
 or 
 or 
 . For the given P and Y, these are the actual factor demands.