Lawrence J. Lau, Pan A. Yotopoulos, Profit, Supply, and Factor Demand Functions, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 54, No. 1 (Feb., 1972), pp. 11-18 ...

A study of daily newspaper cost behavior is used to illustrate a method of estimating cost function parameters using cross-section output and price data only. The cost parameter estimates are obtained ...

The utility function can be used to derive the demand function, and both concepts relate to utility maximization.