{{Short description|Outputs created from a common input}} {{refimprove |date=March 2025}} In economics, '''joint product''' is a [[product (business)|product]] that results jointly with other products from processing a common [[factor of production|input]]; this common process is also called '''joint production'''.<ref>Wouters, Mark; Selto, Frank H.; Hilton, Ronald W.; Maher, Michael W. (2012): ''Cost Management: Strategies for Business Decisions'', International Edition, Berkshire (UK), p. 532.</ref> A joint product can be the output of a process with [[Leontief production function|fixed]] or variable proportions.
== Examples == * The processing of [[crude oil]] can result in the joint products [[naphtha]], [[gasoline]], [[jet fuel]], [[kerosene]], [[diesel fuel|diesel]], [[heavy fuel oil]] and [[Bitumen|asphalt]], as well as other petrochemical derivatives. The refinery process has variable proportions depending on the distilling temperatures and cracking intensity. * [[Cogeneration]] delivers the joint products of heat and power; trigeneration provides cold, heat and power. With extraction steam turbines, cogeneration has variable proportions; with an internal combustion engine the proportions of heat and power are fixed. * In a [[blast furnace]], joint products are [[pig iron]], [[slag]] and [[blast furnace gas]]. The iron is a precursor of [[steel]], the slag can be sold as [[construction material]], and the gas is used to reheat [[Cowper stove]]s. With variable process parameters of the iron smelting, the proportions are slightly variable. * The [[chloralkali process]], one of the basic processes in the chemical industry, is the electrolysis of sodium chloride (common salt) providing the joint products [[chlorine]], [[sodium hydroxide]] and [[hydrogen]]. Due to the molar relation in the chemical equation, the proportions are fixed.
== Joint product pricing == In [[microeconomics]],''' joint product pricing''' is the firm's problem of choosing prices for joint product, each of which is considered to be of value. Pricing for joint products is more complex than pricing for a single product. To begin with, there are two demand curves. The characteristics of each could be different. Demand for one product could be greater than for the other. Consumers of one product could be more [[price elasticity of demand|price elastic]] than consumers of the other (and therefore more sensitive to changes in the product's price).
To complicate things further, both products, because they are produced jointly, share a common [[marginal cost curve]]. Their production could be linked in that they are bi-products (referred to as ''complements in production''), or produced by the same inputs (referred to as ''substitutes in production''). Further, production of the joint product could be in fixed proportions or in variable proportions.
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}} {{energy-stub}} {{Econ-stub}} [[Category:Pricing]] [[Category:Production (economics)]]