On inferior inputs and marginal returns

An input is inferior if and only if an increase in its price raises all marginal productivities. A sufficient condition for input inferiority under quasi-concavity of the production function is then that there are increasing marginal returns with respect to the other input and a non-positive marginal productivity cross derivative. Thus, contrary to widespread opinion, input “competitiveness” is not needed. We discuss these facts and illustrate them by introducing a class of simple production function functional forms. Our results suggest that the existence of inferior inputs is naturally associated with increasing returns, and possibly strengthen the case for inferiority considerably.