宿迁市经济增长因素实证分析——基于Cobb-Dauglas生产函数的定量分析

根据Cobb-Dauglas生产函数,地区经济增长的因素主要可以归结为技术、资本和劳动三个因素。运用Cobb-Dauglas生产函数模型,以统计数据为基础,测算了2000—2005年间宿迁市经济增长中各种生产要素的贡献。通过分析得出宿迁的经济增长主要靠资本的投入实现,技术进步也起到一定的作用,而劳动在其中的作用很小。提出宿迁应进一步加快产业结构升级,充分发挥技术进步的作用,同时着力扶持劳动密集型企业,吸纳更多的劳动力。     

Is money an omitted variable in the production function? Some further results

In recent years, numerous studies have emphasized the role of real balances in the production function in terms of money being useful: as an intermediate good; as liquid reserves for investment; and also serving as a link between aggregate supply and the nominal interest rate. In this paper we report new Canadian empirical evidence regarding the important role of money in the production process of aggregate manufacturing industries based on a flexible translog cost function approach. In general, our results support the hypothesis that money is an important factor in the production function and that there are potential supply side effects of a change in the interest rate.     

Constrained output maximization and US agriculture

This paper presents a framework for estimating an indirect production function and then applies it to aggregate US agriculture. Issues addressed include tests of standard hypotheses about the underlying technology (homotheticity, neutral technical change, etc.) as well as examination of consistency in aggregation and the effects of changes in the level of aggregate expenditure on farm output. Since there already exist several studies empirically describing agricultural production technologies with indirect objective functions, one might fairly ask whether this paper really breaks any new ground? We feel that it does. One reason is that existing studies (e.g. Binswanger, 1974; Lopez, 1980; Ball and Chambers, 1982; Ray, 1982; and Weaver, 1983) all rely on either profit or cost functions. To date there appears to be only one study using an indirect production (Appelbaum, 1979), and it is not in agriculture. This seems unfortunate because there are many instances in agriculture for which an indirect production function (or revenue function approach) seems more appropriate. The reason why relates directly to one's belief about the objective function and constraints farmers face. Ultimately, it seems plausible in a certainty framework that producers maximize profits. And since cost minimization and output maximization are just constrained versions of profit maximization, both cost and indirect production functions are more appropriately viewed as restricted profit functions. What differs is the constraint. Assuming cost minimization implies that farmers are constrained by a fixed output which they must produce; in most instances, this is implausible. More likely, the level of output is itself a choice variable. Output maximization, on the other hand, suggests that the main constraint is the amount of money that producers can muster to hire resources. In other words, farmers may face binding constraints in obtaining the profit maximizing level on expenditure on input utilization. One might think that expenditure may not be a binding constraint because there exists a relatively active US credit market. However, the US credit market is far from being perfectly competitive in a stylized sense, and thus, the possibility of a farmer being able to finance a given level of expenditure may be limited.

Readers familiar with the dual approach to production problems may already be asking why these ideas rule out cost functions since it is well known that the cost function is the distance function of the indirect production function (Blackorby et al., 1978)? In principle, therefore, one could always estimate a cost function and then invert it to obtain the indirect production function. There are two problems with this approach: the first is that if output maximization is truly the objective, output is not predetermined and cannot be treated as exogenous in cost function estimation. Second, estimation of direct and indirect functions using the same data set does not always yield comparable results. Estimation of a transcendental logarithmic (translog) indirect production function and a translog cost function, separately, does not generally yield identical estimates of the Allen elasticities of substitutions. Solving the first problem in simple, but the second suggests that estimation should proceed on the basis of the objective function the researcher deems most appropriate. Therefore, if output maximization is more plausible than cost minimization an indirect production function should be used.

The plan of the paper is as follows. We first outline the theoretical developments necessary to our approach (included are conditions necessary for consistent aggregation over firms). We then present estimates of an indirect production function and use these estimates to investigate the plausibility of various restrictions on the technology, consistency in aggregation, substitution possibilities in agricultural production, and the effect of expenditure on agricultural input utilization. The paper closes with a discussion of the results and suggestions for future research.     

我国知识生产投入产出关系的动态分析

知识生产和创新是促进技术进步和经济增长的重要因素。企业通过R&D投入可以生产出新知识,知识积累形成知识存量,知识存量又推动了技术进步,并进一步引致经济增长。基于新增长理论关于知识生产函数的基本设定,本文首先给出了一个扩张形式的知识生产函数,而后根据我国现实经济数据,在向量自回归的框架下通过脉冲响应函数和方差分解考察了各类因素对我国知识生产的影响。研究表明,R&D经费、R&D人员和知识存量对我国知识生产具有显著的促进作用;外商直接投资和进口对我国知识生产的促进作用不显著。本文认为,应采取切实措施鼓励企业增加R&D投入,同时增加政府财政支出中R&D投入的力度。     

Why do Aggregate Production Functions Work? Fisher’s simulations,Shaikh’s identity and some new results

The literature on aggregation has shown that the conditions for successful aggregation of micro production functions into an aggregate production function are far too stringent to be believable (Fisher 1969, 1971). Despite this, aggregate production functions continue being used. The reason is that they seem to 'work'. This happens, however, because underlying every aggregate production function is the income accounting identity that links input and output, i.e. output equals wages plus profits. A simple algebraic transformation of this identity yields a form that resembles a production function (Shaikh, 1974, 1980). This paper uses Monte Carlo simulations to study two questions. First, how much spuriousness can help explain the relatively good fits of the Cobb-Douglas production function? The simulations show that the contribution of spuriousness to a high R 2 is minor once we properly account for the fact that input and output data used in production function estimations are linked through the income accounting identity. It is mostly the link through this identity that explains the results. Secondly, we study how much factor shares have to vary in an economy so as to render the Cobb-Douglas production function with a time trend a bad choice for modelling and estimation purposes. We conclude that the Cobb-Douglas form is robust to relatively large variations in the factor shares. What makes this form often fail are the variations in the growth rates of the wage and profit rates.     

Valuing ecosystem services: A shadow price for net primary production

We analyze the contribution of ecosystem services to GDP and use this contribution to calculate an empirical price for ecosystem services. Net primary production is used as a proxy for ecosystem services and, along with capital and labor, is used to estimate a Cobb Douglas production function from an international panel. A positive output elasticity for net primary production probably measures both marketed and nonmarketed contributions of ecosystems services. The production function is used to calculate the marginal product of net primary production, which is the shadow price for ecosystem services. The shadow price generally is greatest for developed nations, which have larger technical scalars and use less net primary production per unit output. The rate of technical substitution indicates that the quantity of capital needed to replace a unit of net primary production tends to increase with economic development, and this rate of replacement may ultimately constrain economic growth.     

The Fossil Production Function in a Vintage Model

This paper extends the fossil production function to incorporate embodied technical change. The fossil production function provides an alternative to the standard neoclassical explanation for the aggregate production function. In a Classical Ricardian spirit, the paper assumes that capital-using, labour saving technical change prevails, and shows that it generates a fossil production function in Cobb-Douglas form. The power term of the production function mediates the viability of new machines. A sufficient condition for viability is that the power term equals or exceeds the profit share on new machines. Empirical estimates show that this sufficient condition is satisfied, a result inconsistent with the neoclassical interpretation of the aggregate production function.     

Risk Preferences,Production Risk and Firm Heterogeneity*

A new technique is proposed for deriving the risk preference function under production risk and expected utility of profit maximization. The derivation depends on neither a specific parametric form of the utility function nor any distribution of the error term representing production risk. The proposed risk preference function is flexible enough to test different types of risk behavior and symmetry of the output distribution. Furthermore, our production risk specification allows for inputs with positive and negative marginal risk. The econometric model accommodates production risk, risk preferences and firm heterogeneity simultaneously. Norwegian salmon farming data are used as an application.     

Micro-foundation for a constant elasticity of substitution production function through mechanization

We consider an increase in the range of capital use as a form of mechanization. A constant elasticity of substitution (CES) production function is dynamically derived from Leontief production functions through the endogenous complementary relationship between capital accumulation and mechanization. This implies that a CES production function can be resolved into technological change that does not involve changes in total factor productivity. Furthermore, using the normalizing procedure of the CES production function developed by de La Grandville [de La Grandville, O., 1989. In quest of the Slutsky diamond. American Economic Review 79, 468–481], we investigate how mechanization is related to the elasticity of substitution in our endogenous growth model.     

Human capital aggregation and relative wages across countries

Most of the growth accounting literature relies on an aggregate production function to determine the contribution of factors of production relative to that of total factor productivity (TFP) in explaining differences in incomes across countries. I show that the importance of TFP in accounting for cross-country income differences depends crucially on how skilled and unskilled labor are aggregated. Further, cross-country evidence on the relationship between relative wages and relative endowments of skilled and unskilled labor suggests that the two types of labor should not be aggregated into a single factor of production. Growth accounting decomposition using a commonly used nested-CES aggregate production function that allows skilled and unskilled labor to be used as separate factors of production results in a significantly greater role for TFP in accounting for income differences across countries than that found by past studies. The finding that different aggregate production functions lead to significantly different conclusions about the role of TFP in accounting for cross-country income differences calls for a more general approach to understanding such differences.     

基于教育人力资本投资视角的陕西经济增长问题分析

人力资本投资和积累对促进就业起重要作用,而就业是带动经济增长的重要条件。以柯布—道格拉斯函数为基础建立生产函数模型,选择教育经费作为人力资本投资的衡量标准,对陕西省1996—2010年的数据进行回归分析,并对回归结果进行检验,计算得出基于教育的人力资本投资对经济增长的贡献,在此基础上提出促进就业发展经济的相关对策。     

The CES‐‐Translog Production Function, Returns to Scale and AES

The translog functional form imposes no a priori restrictions on the substitution possibilities between the factor inputs, by relaxing the assumption of strong separability, and the CES–translog cost function specification allows for testing homothetic technology with Hicks‐neutral technical change. In this paper an n ‐factor CES–translog production function is presented which develops the parameters to directly assess scale effects from those due to technology in the production structure. In addition, by applying Shephard's lemma it was possible to derive the input demand functions, as well as the partial elasticities of substitution and the cross‐partial price elasticities of demand for a generalized CES–translog production structure.     

What is wrong with aggregate production functions. On Temple’s ‘aggregate production functions and growth economics’

In an article in the 2006 volume of this journal, Jonathan Temple presented a defence of the use of the aggregate production function in growth theory in the light of various criticisms that have been levelled at it. These criticisms include the Cambridge Capital Theory Controversies, various aggregation problems, and the problems posed by the use of value data and the underlying accounting identity. We show that Temple has underestimated the seriousness of these criticisms, especially the last one, which vitiates the concept of the aggregate production function. Because of the identity, estimates of putative aggregate production functions, such as the aggregate elasticity of substitution, cannot be interpreted as reflecting the underlying technology, and hence the use of the aggregate production function is extremely problematical.     

BOD7 production function of the Finnish pulp and paper industry

Traditional neoclassical production theory analyzes the relationship in a production process between inputs and outputs which have a positive market value for the producer. The externalities of production, which have nonpositive market values, are discarded or included as the cost in a cost function. This paper studies the relationship between biological oxygen demand (BOD) emissions, an output of nonpositive value, and traditional factors of production, that is, investments, labor, output, and raw materials. An emissions production function is theoretically presented and empirically estimated with data from the Finnish pulp and paper industry. The approach is based on the observation that it is the minimization of effluents rather than, or together with, the maximization of yields, that increasingly defines the technological frontier of production processes. The empirical function estimation demonstrates the validity of the proposed novel modeling approach.     

The macro production function uniquely determines the capacity distribution of the micro units

A wellknown approach to the theory of production obtains the macro production function from an integration over a distribution of capacities of micro units. An elementary proof is given for the fact that the macro production function uniquely determines the capacity distribution.     

C.E.S. production functions in the light of the Cambridge critique

The Cambridge debate of the 1960s showed conclusively that the aggregation of capital, so as to obtain a surrogate production function according to Samuelson, is not possible in general, with critical implications also for other variants of neoclassical theory. The framework for the demonstration is that of linear activity analysis.There is an individual wage curve in function of the rate of profit for each technique. If these individual wage curves were straight lines, their envelope would define a wage curve resulting from all techniques, from which a surrogate production function could be derived, but all wage curves are straight only, if there is only one industry. And if wage curves are not straight, phenomena such as reswitching show that essential neoclassical hypotheses need not hold. A recent empirical investigation by Han and Schefold has found one empirical example for reswitching and several for reverse capital deepening.A rigorous derivation of surrogate production functions thus is ruled out also on empirical grounds, but the paradoxes seem not to be as frequent as the critics once thought, so that the question arises whether approximate surrogate production functions could be derived, with individual wage curves which would be sufficiently linear to construct approximate surrogate production functions, indicating a relationship between the intensity of capital and output per head which would be sufficiently precise to work with.The paper is part of a wider investigation, in which conditions for the existence of quasi-linear wage curves and the possibility of the construction of approximate surrogate production functions are given. The emphasis here is on the special hypotheses needed to obtain C.E.S. production functions.     

The distribution approach to the aggregation of putty-clay production functions

The point of departure of the distribution approach is the efficiency distribution of the production units in an industry. From this distribution the full-capacity production function and the short-run aggregate production function of the industry are derived. The long-run production function of the industry then is derived from the full-capacity function and the short-run production function. Hence, in the context of the distribution approach the relation is analysed between the short-run, full-capacity and long-run aggregate production functions of the industry and the efficiency distribution (and related capacity distribution) of the production units in that industry. Finally, the distribution approach is applied for the case of the Japanese cotton spinning industry.     

Nachfragefunktionen für die Produktionsfaktoren Arbeit und Kapital

Summary In this paper we present dynamic factor demand functions for labour and capital, and the underlying production function for the Austrian economy. Our approach is neoclassical. By definition, the production function is of the Cobb-Douglas type; experiments with a CES production function were not successful. Our empirical results look very plausible. The adjustement speeds, the output and price elasticities of both factor demand functions, as well as the parameters of the underlying production function are of a order of magnitude highly compatible with neoclassical theory.     

Interactions of the firm's real and financial decisions

This paper provides an integrated approach to the theory of the firm. Under technological uncertainty, corporate taxes, risky debt and risk neutrality it is shown that the firm's investment production and financing decisions are made simultaneously. It is demonstrated that the relationship between optimal capital (or labour) and debt is not strictly negative as in Dotan and Ravid (1982) nor strictly positive as in Hite (1977). The direction of this relationship depends on the characteristics of debt and the characteristics of the firm's production function. Given the simultaneity of the real and financial decisions, it is shown that an interior optimum exists for the firm's value as a function of debt.     

An alternative to natural monopoly

Journal of Regulatory Economics - We consider a shared ownership arrangement among consumers/owners as a means to organize production with an underlying decreasing average cost function typical of...