Lectures on Production Theory and Techniques

Abstract

This is the first draft of my lectures on 'Production Theory and Techniques' prepared on the suggestion of Professor Bent Hansen with whom I had the good fortune to teach the so-called Advanced Economic Theory. As Prof. Hansen so rightly pointed out, Production Theory forms the backbone of all Growth Theory and the Growth Models differ from each other according to the Production Function they use or imply. (There cannot be any growth theory without production theory). Thus the Production Theory, occupies the same or even more crucial position in the Post World War II Growth Era' as the Consumption Theory did in the Inter-War Business Cycles Era'. Unfortunately the pure economists cannot be expected to be at their best in Production Theory as they, along with statisticians, were in Consumption Theory. Any really worthwhile invention or discovery in Production Theory is more likely to come from engineers and physicists rather than from economists or econometricians. And it is for nought that the former group has been often more successful in programming and planning than the latter in the recent years