A Synthesis on the Cobb-Douglas Surface Concavity

This paper synthetizes the discussion of the mathematical conditions required to calculate the Cobb-Douglas surface concavity and their implications with certain regularity conditions of the neoclassical model. The surface is strictly concave, concave, or strictly quasiconcave depending on the function homogeneity degree. It is symmetric if, and only if, surface concavity has economic implications, i.e., profit maximization requires strict concavity; however, the zero-profit condition of the competitive markets model and Euler’s theorem only require concavity, but not strict concavity. Conversely, independently of the surface concavity, the cost function and compensated input demands are always defined and well behaved