参考讲稿problemsets lecture3问题集.pdfVIP

Question1:Hereisawayofseeingwhygreaterinputvarietyinproductionisakintotechnical

progress.SupposethatanoutputYisproducedbyndifferentkindsofmachines,X,X,,X.

12n

Nomachineisnecessaryinproduction,andtherearediminishingreturnstoeachmachine,but

thewholeproceshibitsconstantreturnstoscale.Onewayofcapturingthisistosuethe

productionfunction:

whereliesbetween0and1.

(a)Showthatifallmachineinputsareincreasedbysomefactor,thenoutputalso

increasesbythesamefactor.Thismeansthatthereisconstantreturnstoscalein

production.

(b)Showthatifthereareatleasttwodifferentkindsofmachineinputs,thenthereis

diminishingreturnstoeachpoint.

(c)Nowsupposethateachmachinehasanewblueprintforitsmanufacture,butoncethe

blueprintisknown,Bunitsofanyofthesemachinescanbeproducedbyusingoneunit

of“capital”(whichismeasuredinthesameunitsasfinaloutput).Showthatifagiven

amountofcapitalKisavailable,itshouldbeusedtomakethesamequantityofeach

machinesoastoizethefinaloutputfromproduction.

(d)Showthatforagivenvarietyofmachines(i.e.,givenn),theproductionfunctioncanbe

1

rewrittenasafunctionofaggregate“capital”Kintheform

YnBK

(e)Nowusingthipression,showthatbothanincreaseintheproductivityofmachine-