4.II.20H

Optimization | Part IB, 2008

(i) Suppose that f:RnRf: \mathbb{R}^{n} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}, and g:RnRmg: \mathbb{R}^{n} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}^{m} are continuously differentiable. Suppose that the problem

maxf(x)\max f(x) subject to g(x)=bg(x)=b

is solved by a unique xˉ=xˉ(b)\bar{x}=\bar{x}(b) for each bRmb \in \mathbb{R}^{m}, and that there exists a unique λ(b)Rm\lambda(b) \in \mathbb{R}^{m} such that

φ(b)f(xˉ(b))=supx{f(x)+λ(b)T(bg(x))}\varphi(b) \equiv f(\bar{x}(b))=\sup _{x}\left\{f(x)+\lambda(b)^{T}(b-g(x))\right\}

Assuming that xˉ\bar{x} and λ\lambda are continuously differentiable, prove that

φbi(b)=λi(b)\frac{\partial \varphi}{\partial b_{i}}(b)=\lambda_{i}(b)

(ii) The output of a firm is a function of the capital KK deployed, and the amount LL of labour employed, given by

f(K,L)=KαLβf(K, L)=K^{\alpha} L^{\beta}

where α,β(0,1)\alpha, \beta \in(0,1). The firm's manager has to optimize the output subject to the budget constraint

K+wL=b,K+w L=b,

where w>0w>0 is the wage rate and b>0b>0 is the available budget. By casting the problem in Lagrangian form, find the optimal solution and verify the relation ()(*).

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