4. (5%) Consider a representative firm in a perfectly competitive market using three inputs to produce its output: labor \((L)\), capital \((K)\), and material \((M)\). The production function is given by \(f(L, K, M) = L^2 K^2 M^2\). Suppose the unit price of labor, capital, and material are \(w = 1\), \(r = 1\), and \(m = 1\), respectively. Each firm is assumed to solve the cost minimization problem given the capital level \(K = 1\). The short-run cost function of each firm is (4a) with efficient scale (4b).
4a