Continuous Switching of Techniques in Linear Production Models

Abstract

In linear production models, a switching of technique consists, in general, of a discontinuous variation of a plurality of technical coefficients and of the capital/labor ratio. This result has often been claimed to hold only with discrete technologies; when techniques crowd indefinitely along the wage-profit frontier this approximates to traditional smooth behavior. This conjecture is disproved in this article: in general, technical coefficients and the capital/labor ratio vary discontinuously, either with a discrete or with a continuum spectrum of techniques along the wage-profit frontier. Copyright 1993 by Blackwell Publishers Ltd and The Victoria University of Manchester