Formal Example
The Cobb-Douglas functional form has constant returns to scale when the sum of the exponents adds up to one. The function is:
where and . Thus
But if the Cobb-Douglas production function has its general form
with then there are increasing returns if b + c > 1 but decreasing returns if b + c < 1, since
which is greater than or less than as b+c is greater or less than one.
Read more about this topic: Returns To Scale
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