why is this economics parabola sideways? switch x and y axis Why is this "parabola" sideways?



Normally, f(x)=y, would be that x is graphed horizontally, and you would write that "wage rate is a function of hours worked", which is how I would normally think about wages and hours.  However, this graph seems to read that the hours worked are a function of the rate.

Perhaps a graph of the wage itself against hours might be more useful.

Is there some point to graphing this "sideways"?

(Of course, it might not be a parabola, I'm just guessing.)

The wikipedia entry says it's "S-shaped", which I interpret to mean it goes up and down, maybe more like a sine-wave or something along those lines.  But why sideways?
This is not a mathematics question but rather an economics question. It is tradition in economics to have in the Y-axis the independent variable and in the X-axis the dependent variable.

Here wage is the independent variable (set by market forces) and hours worked is the dependent variable (workers choose how much to work at the prevailing wages). It may not be realistic but this what the graph is suppose to depict.

The reason it bends backwards is that as wages become too high, workers prefer to work less and take more leisure time.
Please note that $y=f(x)$ meaning $y$ is a dependent variable and $x$ is an independent variable and this convention is always used. In economics traditionally for simplicity's sake we take $p=f(qd)$ or $p=f(qs)$ which is not correct. In economics the correct form i.e. $qd,qs=f(p)$ should be used.

Dr. M. Ahsanuddin