The LINGO solution report also gives a dual price figure for each constraint. You can interpret the dual price as the amount that the objective would improve as the right-hand side, or constant term, of the constraint is increased by one unit. For example, in the CompuQuick solution, the dual price of 75 on row 4 means adding one more unit of labor would cause the objective to improve by 75, to a value of 14,575.

Notice that "improve" is a relative term. In a maximization problem, improve means the objective value would increase. However, in a minimization problem, the objective value would decrease if you were to increase the right-hand side of a constraint with a positive dual price.

Dual prices are sometimes called shadow prices, because they tell you how much you should be willing to pay for additional units of a resource. Based on our analysis, CompuQuick should be willing to pay up to 75 dollars for each additional unit of labor.

As with reduced costs, dual prices are valid only over a range of values. Refer to the Solver|Range command in Windows Commands for more information on determining the valid range of a dual price.