0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Labour (L)
C
a
p
it
a
l
(K
)
FIGURE 5.3: EDGEWORTH BOX DIAGRAM FOR PRODUCTION
In the above figure, the
Edgeworth box diagram for
production is obtained by rotating the iso-quant diagram for
commodity Y by 180 degrees and superimposing it on the iso-quant
diagram for commodity X in such way that the size of the box refers
to the total amount of L and K available to the economy (12L and
10K). Any point inside the box indicates how the total amount of the
two inputs is utilised in the production of the two commodities.
For example, point R indicates that 3L and 8K are used in
the production of X
1
of commodity X, and the remaining 9L and 2K
are
used to produce Y
1
of Y. Thre
e of X‘s iso-quants (convex to
origin 0
X
) are X
1
, X
2
, and X
3
. Three of Y‘s iso-quants (convex to
origin 0
Y
) are Y
1
, Y
2
, and Y
3
.
If this economy was initially at point R, it would not be
maximising its output of commodities X and Y because, at point R,
the marginal rate of technical substitution
of labour for capital
(MRTS
LK
) in the production of X (the absolute slope of X
1
) exceeds
the MRTS
LK
in the production of Y (the absolute slope of Y
1
). By
simply transferring 6K from the production of X to the production of
Y and 1L from the production
of Y to the production of X, the
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