整合技术概念及对新古典就业理论的反思

笔者提出整合技术概念，即所有的工人整合在一起操作生产系统；如果任何一名工人缺失，则生产系统不能运行。如果一种技术严格具有整合技术的性质，那么在到达能使生产系统运行之前，工人的边际产品为零。如果增加一名工人生产系统就可运行，则这名工人的边际产品等于总产品。如果再增加一名工人的边际产品为零，则边际产品曲线退化为一条垂直线。新古典边际劳动生产率理论认为，厂商雇闸工人的工资等于劳动的边际产品，但这一理论显然不适合整合技术。因此，要研究在更一般条件下厂商雇用决策的机制。采用整合技术的概念可以对很多经济学的理论问题进行重新思考。     

The Optimal Tax Treatment of Housing Capital in the Neoclassical Growth Model

Should housing capital be taxed like other forms of capital? We analyze this question within a version of the neoclassical growth model. We derive the optimal tax treatment of housing capital vis‐à‐vis business capital allowing for relatively general household preferences. In the first‐best, the tax treatment of business and housing capital should always be the same. In the second‐best, in contrast, the optimal tax treatment of housing capital depends on the elasticities of substitution between nonhousing consumption, housing, and leisure. This is because housing taxation may be used to alleviate the distorting effect of taxing labor. As a result, the optimal tax treatment of housing capital may be different from that of business capital. We complement these analytical results with a numerical analysis.     

Optimal Capital Taxation in a Neoclassical Growth Model

This paper studies the optimal factor tax incidence in a neoclassical growth model with a given share of government expenditure in output. In the Ramsey planner's optimization, the effect of next period's capital on government expenditure equals the given share of the marginal product of capital. Capital accumulation reduces the discounted net marginal product of next period's capital by way of increasing government expenditure. In order to internalize the distortion, it is optimal to tax capital income in the long run.     

Capital Mobility in Open OLG Models of Neoclassical Growth

This paper explores whether the international mobility of physical and/or financial capital is essential for productive efficiency in each of three open OLG models of neoclassical growth that vary in terms of dimensional attributes. A tradeoff between capital mobility requirements and dimension has previously been established by example where, ceteris paribus , neither form of capital mobility is required with three productive sectors, only physical capital mobility is required with two sectors, and both forms of mobility are required with a single sector. This paper reconsiders that tradeoff using a generalization of the production and utility functions which introduces the potential for specialization along the transition path—an event which would imply inconsistent capital mobility requirements along the growth path for models with fixed dimension. Conditions are established under which the tradeoff between capital mobility requirements and dimension remains valid.     

"剑桥资本争论"与新古典分配理论的质疑

目前居现代主流经济学地位的新古典边际生产力分配理论,由于完全排除了特定经济制度和资本主义经济关系的研究框架,从而在与新剑桥学派发起的“剑桥资本争论”中不断以逻辑悖论形式公诸于众;相反,由新剑桥学派所要复兴的古典剩余经济传统才是真正能够联系到现实资本主义经济关系的理论体系。     

Australian Business Investment: A New Look at the Neoclassical Approach*

This paper attempts to reconcile neoclassical theory with Australian investment data. We argue that, by focusing almost exclusively on the demand for capital services, neoclassical investment theory neglects two related decisions: the decision to own the existing capital stock, and the decision to produce new capital goods. We propose a simple model of investment behaviour that integrates production decisions with portfolio decisions. Careful consideration is given to the determination of the price of capital, the rental price of capital, and the return on capital. The model is estimated by FIML, and a number of simulation results are reported.     

The Intergenerational Overlap and Human Capital Formation*

A new microeconomic explanation for the divergent experiences of economies in forming human capital is proposed. It is suggested that the positive effect of a longer life expectancy on human capital formation arises from two separate effects: a life‐expectancy effect and a prolonged intergenerational overlap effect. It is argued that the duration of the overlap between generations and the associated parental support can affect the marginal cost of human capital formation and hence its level: parental support is cheaper than market financing. The strong correlation between the formation of human capital and life expectancy is thus attributed not merely to a higher marginal benefit arising from a longer payback period but also to a lower marginal cost arising from a prolonged intergenerational overlap. Conditions are provided under which a longer overlap results in a higher level of per capita output.     

Economics of Social Capital*

The literature on the idea of ‘social capital’ is now enormous. Offering an alternative to impersonal markets and coercive states, the communitarian institutions built around social capital have looked attractive to scholars in the humanities and social sciences. The literature in consequence has a warm glow to it. In this article, I first study the various contexts in which the promises people make to one another are credible and then suggest that the accumulation of social capital is a possible route to creating such a context. I offer a tight definition of social capital – namely, interpersonal networks – so as not to prejudge its ability to enhance human well-being. The links between the microfoundations of social capital and the macroeconomic performance of economies are then studied. I also show that economic theory not only identifies circumstances in which communitarian institutions can function well, but that it also uncovers a dark side, namely, their capicity to permit one group to exploit another within long-term relationships.     

Median‐voter Equilibria in the Neoclassical Growth Model under Aggregation*

We study a dynamic version of Meltzer and Richard's median‐voter model where agents differ in wealth. Taxes are proportional to income and are redistributed as equal lump‐sum transfers. Voting occurs every period and each consumer votes for the tax that maximizes his welfare. We characterize time‐consistent Markov‐perfect equilibria twofold. First, restricting utility classes, we show that the economy's aggregate state is mean and median wealth. Second, we derive the median‐voter's first‐order condition interpreting it as a tradeoff between distortions and net wealth transfers. Our method for solving the steady state relies on a polynomial expansion around the steady state.     

On The Distributional Effects Of Reducing Capital Taxes*

This article asks whether household heterogeneity and market incompleteness have quantitatively important implications for the welfare effects of tax changes. We compare a representative‐agent economy to an economy in which households face idiosyncratic uninsurable income risk. The income process is consistent with empirical estimates and implies a realistic wealth distribution. We find that capital tax cuts imply large welfare gains in the representative‐agent economy. However, when households are heterogeneous, substantial redistribution during transition means that only a minority will support capital tax cuts, whereas most households can expect large welfare losses.     

Neoclassical versus Frontier Production Models? Testing for the Skewness of Regression Residuals*

The empirical literature on production and cost functions is divided into two strands. The neoclassical approach concentrates on model parameters, while the frontier approach decomposes the disturbance term to a symmetric noise term and a positively skewed inefficiency term. We propose a theoretical justification for the skewness of the inefficiency term, arguing that this skewness is the key testable hypothesis of the frontier approach. We propose to test the regression residuals for skewness in order to distinguish the two competing approaches. Our test builds directly upon the asymmetry of regression residuals and does not require any prior distributional assumptions.     

C.E. Ferguson and the Neoclassical Theory of Capital: A Matter of Faith

In 1969 the American neoclassical economist C.E. Ferguson wrote that reliance on neoclassical aggregate production and distribution theory is a ‘matter of faith’ to be sorted out (he says ‘answered’) by econometricians. Ferguson was criticized on both sides of the debate for invoking this religious metaphor. Using the methodological framework of A.J. Cohen & G.C. Harcourt (2005), Introduction: capital theory controversy: scarcity, production, equilibrium, and time, in: A. Cohen, G.C. Harcourt & C. Bliss (Eds) Capital Theory, 3 Vols. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, this paper argues that faith plays a recurring role in all capital controversies and especially in modern theories of growth that rely wholesale on the aggregate production function. Ferguson's faith proves to be much more insightful than previously recognized.     

Monetary Policy and Capital Inflow*

Capital inflow has been depicted in the model developed by Pentti Kouri and Michael Porter as being determined exclusively by monetary forces, with GNP entering the equation through its impact on the demand for money. If this is correct, disaggregation of GNP should have little effect on the estimates of response parameters in the model. It is found that replacing GNP by investment and non-investment spending has a significant effect on the estimates, suggesting that capital inflows have direct purposes which are not well represented in a purely monetary model. An attempt is made to construct a money policy equation as the second part of a simultaneous system depicting the interplay of monetary policy and capital inflow. In spite of claims to the contrary, it is found that simultaneous estimation gives results which differ considerably from those of single-equation methods.     

Capital Structure under Costly Enforcement*

We consider financial structure and repayment behavior in a setting where cash flows are private information to the entrepreneur and the cost of enforcing repayment differs across security holders. If enforcement costs are lower for shareholders than for creditors, a mixed capital structure with debt and equity can obtain in equilibrium. Under a mixed capital structure, creditors intervene in low cash‐flow states while shareholders intervene in high cash‐flow states. Moreover, strategic defaults, costly bankruptcy, shareholder intervention, and violation of absolute priority occur with positive probability on the equilibrium path. Several of the predictions from our framework are consistent with evidence not readily explainable by existing theories.     

Optimal Taxation of Risky Human Capital*

In a two‐period life‐cycle model with ex ante homogeneous households, earnings risk, and a general earnings function, we derive the optimal linear labor tax rate and optimal linear education subsidies. The optimal income tax trades off social insurance against incentives to work. Education subsidies are not used for social insurance, but they are only targeted at offsetting the distortions of the labor tax and internalizing a fiscal externality. Both optimal education subsidies and tax rates increase if labor and education are more complementary, because education subsidies indirectly lower labor tax distortions by stimulating labor supply. Optimal education subsidies (taxes) also correct non‐tax distortions arising from missing insurance markets. Education subsidies internalize a positive (negative) fiscal externality if there is underinvestment (overinvestment) in education because of risk. Education policy unambiguously allows for more social insurance if education is a risky activity. However, if education hedges against labor‐market risk, optimal tax rates could be lower than in the case without education subsidies.     

The Dependent-Economy Model With Both Traded and Nontraded Capital Goods*

Dynamic versions of the dependent-economy model have been criticized for arbitrarily assuming that capital is either tradable or nontradable, and for choosing either the traded or nontraded sector to be capital intensive. Our model incorporates both types of capital and shows that the relative sectoral intensity of nontraded capital determines the dynamic adjustment of the relative price of nontradables. When the traded sector is intensive in nontraded capital, the saddlepath is flat. When the nontraded sector is intensive in nontraded capital, the saddlepath is negatively sloped. the relative sectoral intensity of traded capital primarily affects current-account dynamics.     

Challenging the Human Capital Orthodoxy: The Education-Productivity Link Re-examined*

The human capital orthodoxy has it that education is an investment, not only for the individual undertaking it but also for society when it devotes scarce resources to it The return to society on that investment is seen mainly in terms of the enhanced productive contribution made by more-educated workers. The measure of that greater contribution most often used by economists is the extra earnings the more-educated on average receive This paper re-examines the available evidence of links between education and productivity (and between earnings and productivity) and finds it to be inconclusive.