Answer:
d. beyond some point, the production costs of additional units of output will rise
Explanation:
To answer this question you need to know the concept of marginal productivity. This concept is associated with input productivity and aims to explain how many inputs are needed to produce one more unit of output. Firms seek to produce more units with fewer inputs. Thus, the ideal is for marginal productivity to be increasing. This can happen over time as production increases. However, at some point marginal productivity will decrease and this will increase production costs if the firm does not stop producing.
To be clear, follow an example. Imagine that a pizza parlor uses two employees to produce 5 pizzas per hour. Now imagine that the pizza factory is experiencing increased demand for pizza and hiring more an employee. Now the pizzeria has hired 1 more employee and produces 10 pizzas. Note that hiring 1 employee increased the total productivity of the pizzeria. Previously 5 pizzas were produced by 2 employees, an average of 2.5 pizzas per employee. After hiring the third employee, this production increased to 3.3 pizzas per employee. Now imagine that the pizzeria hires 3 more employees and produces only 14 pizzas, an average of 2.3 pizzas per employee. In this case, productivity decreased due to structural factors, such as the number of ovens and the size of the pizzeria. Therefore, in the long run, production costs tend to increase when firms increase production greatly.
