A dual representation of a technology, e.g., a cost function, may not contain all of the technological information, but it will contain all of the information about input vectors that would be chosen by a cost-minimizing firm. At least this much is clear for deterministic technologies. The main...

Inada (1963) provided properties of the production function that are useful in the study of economic growth. Shephard (1970a) provided an axiomatic approach to the study of production theory. He applied these axioms to give a formal statement of the law of diminishing returns [(Shephard,...