Question

3. Explain why isoquants are thin and downward sloping.

Answer 1

Isoquants are for a particular level of production and so shows the combinations of labour and capital for a particular level of output. Thus as we move downwards a long an isoquant then we have diminishing marginal productivity of capital and labour and so this means the marginal rate of technical substution will decline and so the isoquant is downward sloping for normal inputs. The isoquant is thin due to the monotonicity assumption as each point shows a particular combination of labour and capital. It has to be thin.