A series of Cu - Co ferrites with the general formula Cu1-xCoxFe2O4 (x = 0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1.0) was prepared by a low-temperature hydroxide coprecipitation route. The catalyst systems were characterized by adopting various physicochemical techniques. The acid - base properties were studied in detail, and the catalytic activity as well as the selectivity for oxidative dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene was compared for various compositions. FTIR adsorption of pyridine is carried out to understand the relative acidity of various compositions of the systems. IR studies of spinel surface with adsorbed CO2 and adsorption studies of electron acceptors such as 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane, 2,3,5,6-tetrachloro-1-4-benzoquinone and p-dinitrobenzene are carried out to evaluate the nature of basic sites and the strength and distribution of electron donor sites present on the spinel surface. It is found that acidity (basicity) of the Cu1-xCoxFe2O4 spinel system increases ( decreases) from x = 0 to 1. A good correlation was found between the activity for this reaction and the surface acid - base properties of the catalysts. Intermediate compositions show better catalytic performance, among which x = 0.50 is superior and demonstrates an intermediate acid - base character. It was observed that dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene to styrene proceeds mainly on an acid - base pair site.