Final answer:
To operate beyond the current PPF, a country must improve technology, as this leads to increased levels of production without proportionate increases in input. While reallocating workers and becoming more efficient can help a country to produce within current limits, only improvements in technology can push the PPF outward. Option a is the correct answer.
Step-by-step explanation:
In order for a country to operate beyond its current production possibilities frontier (PPF), it needs to improve technology in the future. This improvement in technology can increase the level of production with current resources, thereby pushing out the PPF.
Other methods such as reallocating workers or becoming more technically efficient may also help to reach a point on the current frontier or move to another point on it with a different mix of goods, but they will not make it possible for the society to achieve a combination of goods that lies outside the current PPF. Experiencing increasing marginal costs or improving allocative efficiency won’t necessarily expand the frontier either.
Over time, as a country's resources grow, such as with more labor or additional capital, its economy and, consequently, its PPF will tend to shift outward, indicating economic growth. Additionally, the law of diminishing returns shows that simply adding resources to production may eventually result in smaller increases in output.
Therefore, the best option to push out the PPF is through technological improvements, which can dramatically increase productivity and move an economy to a higher level of output without requiring proportional increases in inputs.