宏观经济学课件CHAP03 国民收入：从何而来，去向何方教学幻灯片.ppt

* If L=3, then the benefit of hiring the fourth worker (MPL=7) exceeds the cost of doing so (W/P = 6), so it pays the firm to increase L. If L=7, then the firm should hire fewer workers: the 7th worker adds only MPL=4 units of output, yet cost W/P = 6. The point of this slide is to get students to see the idea behind the labor demand = MPL curve. * It’s easy to see that the MPL curve is the firm’s L demand curve. Let L* be the value of L such that MPL = W/P. Suppose L L*. Then, benefit of hiring one more worker (MPL) exceeds cost (W/P), so firm can increase profits by hiring one more worker. Instead, suppose L L*. Then, the benefit of the last worker hired (MPL) is less than the cost (W/P), so firm should reduce labor to increase its profits. When L = L*, then firm cannot increase its profits either by raising or lowering L. Hence, firm hires L to the point where MPL = W/P. This establishes that the MPL curve is the firm’s labor demand curve. * The labor supply curve is vertical: We are assuming that the economy has a fixed quantity of labor, Lbar, regardless of whether the real wage is high or low. Combining this labor supply curve with the demand curve we’ve developed in previous slides shows how the real wage is determined. * In our model, it’s easiest to think of firms renting capital from households (the owners of all factors of production). R/P is the real cost of renting a unit of K for one period of time. In the real world, of course, many firms own some of their capital. But, for such a firm, the market rental rate is the opportunity cost of using its own capital instead of renting it to another firm. Hence, R/P is the relevant “price” in firms’ capital demand decisions, whether firms own their capital or rent it. * The previous slide used the same logic behind the labor demand curve to assert that the capital demand curve is the same as the downward-sloping MPK curve. The supply of capital is fixed (by assumptio