4. Each isoquant identifies all the input combinations a firm can use to efficiently produce
a given amount of output. A family of isoquants consists of isoquants corresponding
to all possible output levels. Isoquants and a family of isoquants satisfy the following
five properties. We can show all the following five properties from Productive Inputs
Principle. Use the Productive Inputs Principle to explain how the five properties are
satisfied. Graphs help.
1
(a) Isoquants cannot be thick.
(b) Isoquants do not slope upward.
(c) An isoquant is the boundary between input combinations that produce more than
a given amount of output and those that produce less. (That is, show that any
input combination above an isoquant $F(L, K) = Q$ produces more than Q and
any input combination below an isoquant $F(L, K) = Q$ produces less than Q.)
(d) Isoquants for the same technology do not cross.
(e) Higher-level isoquants lie farther from the origin.
