Global Sensitivity of Neoclassical and Factor Proportions Models to Production Technology

This paper pictures the global influence of various patterns of returns to scale in the general equilibrium model of production with two factors and two goods. Constant, increasing, and decreasing returns to scale at the sectoral level are explicitly specified. The changing slope and curvature of contract curves, isoquants, production frontiers, and relative price lines are examined under various Cobb-Douglas and exponential production functions. Fundamental properties of neoclassical and factory proportions theory are thus illustrated. [D50, F11]