ABSTRACT
For a bureau operating in the demand-constrained output region, the combination of processes used to produce the bureau's service is completely indeterminate within the range of costs necessary to remain in this region. The indeterminancy of production processes gives the bureau considerable discretion to use factors most strongly represented by the sponsor officers responsible for reviewing the bureau's activities. This problem is sometimes attributed to a doctrinal identification with certain production processes, but it is as easily explained by budget maximization by individual bureaus within a constrained range of production processes. Budget maximization, for bureaus operating in the budget-constrained output region, is completely consistent with cost-minimizing production behavior at the equilibrium level of output. This initial analysis of the production behavior of an elementary bureau leads to the behavioral potheses like some bureaus, specifically those in the budget-constrained output region, seek out and use the minimum cost combination of the available factors and processes to supply the equilibrium output.
