Production Functions

A production function describes the relationship between what is put into a productive process and what emerges in the form of output. There may be a number of ways of combining inputs to achieve a given output or it may be that a unique combination is required. In so far as we are interested only in scarce inputs we can limit our definition to the set of efficient combinations of such inputs. By efficient is simply meant that no more than is necessary is used up to produce the required output; it does not limit us to the least-cost combination.