To determine whether the production of product B can be increased while currently producing 30 units of product A and 39 units of product B, we need to analyze the given production possibilities curve based on the provided table.
Here’s the relevant segment of the table:
- Product A: 30, Product B: 39
- Product A: 40, Product B: 29
- Product A: 50, Product B: 16
- Product A: 60, Product B: 0
In the table, when the firm produces 30 units of product A, it is producing 39 units of product B. If the firm wants to increase the production of product B, it must reduce the production of product A.
Looking at the table, the next point after producing 30 units of product A is at 40 units of product A, where the production of product B drops to 29 units. This shows that if the firm increases the units of product A to 40, the production of product B will decrease from 39 to 29.
This means that at the current level of 30 units of product A and 39 units of product B, the firm cannot increase the production of product B without decreasing the production of product A. In fact, since the production possibilities curve shows that to produce more of one product, the firm must produce less of the other, the production of product B can only be increased if product A is decreased.
Therefore, to directly answer the question: No, the production of product B cannot be increased without reducing the production of product A.