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.     

总需求和总供给冲击对我国失业和产出动态关系的影响分析

在我国的失业产出关系中,短期内,总供给冲击是产出波动的主要来源,总需求冲击则是失业波动的主要来源,总需求冲击和总供给冲击共同破坏了产出失业之间反向变化关系,但是总需求冲击的破坏作用更多一些。在长期,总需求冲击对产出没有影响,总供给冲击对产出有显著的正的影响,总需求冲击在长期对失业没有影响,但总供给冲击在长期会对失业产生不利影响,即正的供给冲击的累积影响所带来的产出增加在长期使我国的失业率上升。     

Oil-Price Shocks: Beyond Standard Aggregate Demand/Aggregate Supply Analysis

The author explores the problems of portraying oil-price shocks using the aggregate demand/aggregate supply model. Although oil-price shocks are the most commonly cited examples of aggregate supply shocks, they violate the model's assumption of constant relative prices (as acknowledged by the label, “oil-price shocks”). The resulting problems are effectively masked in textbook presentations by implicitly assuming that the supply shocks occur in a closed economy. However, the typical discussion is glaringly inaccurate when discussing the effects of oil-price shocks on oil-rich countries. Thus, the cogency of the standard model's representation of oil-price shocks on open economies is compromised. A simple modification of the model that differentiates between production and absorption goods enables it to better reflect the effects of oil-price shocks on open economies.     

储蓄不足与供给约束型经济态势——近代中国经济运行的基本前提研究

多角度的考察表明,近代中国的总需求拉升价格的力度远大于总供给下压价格的力度,产出增长能力较弱;本币升值可以改善贸易收支,贸易条件成立;出口和进口的汇率弹性绝对值之和远小于1,马歇尔—勒纳条件不成立。因此,近代中国经济呈现供给约束型经济态势,总供给曲线的斜度应该是陡峭的。于是,在使用经济学理论框架分析近代中国经济时,应首先考虑所运用的理论之前提假设是否与近代中国的经济态势一致,从而避免产生南辕北辙的结论。     

资源错配、要素市场总扭曲及福利损失测算*——基于单位要素成本的生产率分解视角

通过引入单位要素成本指标,本文对佩特兰和勒文叟汉（Petrin and Levinsohn）的生产率分解模型进行了拓展,［1］得到了一个更为准确的资源重置效应。利用2000—2007年中国规模以上制造业企业数据,经过测算显示,技术进步和要素市场总扭曲是生产率增长的主要来源;样本期间资源重置对生产率增长的平均贡献仅有324%,且日渐式微。然而资源错配造成的福利损失却依旧占制造业增加值的近2663%。这表明,在现有体制下通过市场自发调节促进要素合理配置的空间已经耗尽,经济结构呈现出一定的“固化”倾向,进一步的资源重置应来自对现有经济结构的改革,以缓解资源错配。本文最后通过测算各地区的资源重置潜力,为区域结构优化提供了一个量化参考。     

总量均衡区间及其对通货膨胀与通货紧缩的"放大"效应

现代市场经济运行中由于供给方调整供给量须耗费调节成本,因而传统分析中的"总量均衡中心点"两侧便分别存在着"低位临界点"与"高位临界点",这两点界定了一个特殊的总量均衡区间.总量均衡区间的存在将对通货膨胀与通货紧缩产生一种特殊的"放大"效应,从而对宏观经济运行与调控产生诸多负面影响.对此须予以充分关注,并采取必要措施加以应对.     

总投资和未来收益率的长期关系及影响机制*——基于贝叶斯估计方法的实证分析

本文利用2000—2015年中国上市公司季度数据,采用贝叶斯估计方法实证研究总投资和未来收益率间的长期关系,并从投资者情绪视角探究了二者间的微观影响机制。实证结果显示：第一,短期内总投资的不断增加导致了未来收益率的下降,并且这种负向作用长期内显著增加;第二,在总投资能预期到现金流冲击的情况下,投资者情绪因素解释了总投资与未来收益率间的负向效应问题。     

The relationship among money supply, banking lending and aggregate demand in China: 1994–2006

Based on the framework of Bernanke & Blinader (1988) and Walsh (2003), this paper provides a concise analysis for relationship among money supply, banking lending and aggregate demand; and makes an empirical test on relationship among China’s money supply, banking lending and aggregate demand from 1994 to 2006 by adopting the single-equation regressive model and vector autoregressive model in terms of Keynesian structural model and monetarism simplified model. The result shows that money supply and banking lending have both played a driving role on real economy. Because of non-market interest rates, Keynesian structural model cannot explain the transmission mechanism of China monetary policies better than monetarism simplified model. __________ Translated from Jingji kexue 经济科学 (Economic Science), 2008, (1): 5–15     

中国投资产出效率演变中的消费抑制——基于国民收入总需求方程的省际面板数据分析

基于国民收入总需求方程的理论研究表明,投资产出效率与消费-投资之比呈倒U型关系,其最优值取决于消费-投资之比与投资增长率的动态均衡.投资增长率是影响投资产出效率变动趋势的关键因素,而消费抑制减弱了投资驱动对经济增长的贡献.1992-2007年中国的省级面板数据研究表明,近五年84%的省区年度消费率低于最优的消费率水平,而且消费率有逐渐下降的趋势.因此,消费与投资的结构优化有助于投资产出效率的提升.     

通过加总推出的总供给曲线

总供给曲线的推导是宏观经济学中的最重要内容之一。在大多数宏观经济模型中 ,在推导总供给曲线时 ,加总问题 (aggregationproblem)往往被忽略。一般认为 ,总供给曲线是各企业供给曲线的简单算术和或是一个代表性企业供给曲线的简单放大。但是 ,在现实中 ,各个企业是不同的。只有在非常严格的条件下 ,总供给曲线与企业供给曲线在性质上才是等价的。考虑到中国经济的制度性特点并在解决加总的一系列技术问题的基础上 ,本文推导出了在企业劳动生产率服从均匀分布情况下的总供给曲线。通过这种方法推出的总供给曲线具有许多传统总供给曲线所不具有的新性质。笔者希望本文能为进一步研究处于微观经济和宏观经济之间的往往被忽视的一块重要领域 (“中观经济领域”)做出贡献。     

我国总产出波动中的动态结构变化度量与检验——基于1952-2005年经济周期的实证研究

文章运用多种参数稳定性检验方法研究我国总产出的动态变化路径,发现我国总产出序列具有明显的结构变化特征,获得了我国总产出的结构变化点估计.在此基础上,文章采用具有内生结构变化点的单位根检验方法,结合我国宏观经济运行事实,对我国1952-2005年总产出的动态特征进行了研究,结果发现总产出是围绕多个结构变化点的分段趋势平稳序列,并且准确地给出了自1952年以来的总产出结构变化时间.总产出服从分段趋势平稳过程的结论,对宏观经济运行预测、政策主导下的长期经济发展战略和短期经济稳定措施是否有效,提高宏观管理政策水平以及总产出与其他总量间因果关系的研究具有重要启示.     

Do Business Cycles Cast Long Shadows? Short-Run Persistence and Economic Growth

Thisarticle explores the links between cyclical fluctuations andlong-run growth in the context of an endogenous growth modelwith aggregate demand externalities. In this model, aggregatedemand and growth rates are positively correlated. In the presenceof exogenous cyclical shocks, the model is able to generate persistentfluctuations through the effects that business cycles have onaggregate demand, profits and technological progress. Persistencebecomes a measure of the response to business cycles of growth-relatedvariables. Empirical evidence from a large sample of countriessuggests that there is indeed a correlation between how persistentfluctuations are and the long-term growth rates of GDP.     

新凯恩斯主义总需求理论的微观基础——一个基本模型及其在货币政策中的应用

宏观经济学正在迈向新一次综合.在这个进程中,一些前沿经济学家为总需求理论构建了坚实的微观基础,使其成为新新古典综合框架的一块基石.它与同样建立在微观基础上的总供给理论相结合,就成为当前主流宏观经济学进行货币政策分析的标准工具.利用这个工具,经济学家对货币政策的研究得出了很多富有启发性的结论.本文梳理了总需求理论的上述新近发展,并讨论它在货币政策中的一些应用.特别地,本文的分析表明,这些应用对于中国的货币政策操作具有重要的借鉴意义.     

Increasing returns and aggregate production efficiency by a monopoly

This paper considers an economy where there are many firms with increasing-returns-to-scale technologies and attempts to derive sufficient conditions ensuring that monopoly achieves aggregate production efficiency. In a setting of one output and many inputs, we obtain such sufficient conditions which can be interpreted as a nondecreasing generalized average productivity of inputs for each firm. We also show that a special class of generalized Cobb-Douglas production functions has such a property that monopoly always achieves aggregate production efficiency.     

Asymmetric labour force participation decisions

This article finds compelling evidence of asymmetric labour force participation decisions across demographic groups in response to changes in labour market conditions. This behaviour is consistent with predictions from the standard labour-leisure choice model and suggests that asymmetry in individual behaviour plays some role in the observed asymmetry of the aggregate unemployment rate. It is estimated that the weighted average difference in response to a one percentage point change in unemployment rates is sizeable when compared to the average monthly change in the aggregate labour force.     

Comment on “The endogenous aggregate elasticity of substitution for a small open economy”

This note applies the approach of Miyagiwa and Papageorgiou [Miyagiwa, K. and Papageorgiou, C., 2007. Endogenous aggregate elasticity of substitution. Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 31, 2899–2919] to provide simple frameworks for endogenizing the aggregate elasticity of substitution between capital and labor for a growing small open economy.     

论我国现阶段的汇率政策——兼谈人民币应否贬值问题

目前发生的通货紧缩,总需求不足的根本原因在于总需求发生流程梗阻。因此,以扩大内需为主的支出增减型政策如财政政策货币政策的效果是有限的。中国的经济改革的深入进行需要一个比较高的经济增长速度,在内需难以启动的条件下,只能由外需即净出口的扩大来完成这一任务。汇率政策便成为最优的选择。本文的研究表明,人民币汇率变动对经济增长的贡献度是很高的。人民币贬值有其必要性及可行性。     

对我国货币政策中介目标的研究

货币供应量作为我国货币政策中介目标虽仍具备合理性,却面临一系列困难和障碍;同时,由于利率形成机制并不完善,利率暂时不能作为货币政策中介目标.目前我国应将货币供应量作为货币政策直接中介目标,而以利率作为辅助中介目标,发挥利率在货币政策体系中应有的作用.     

THE SOURCES OF AGGREGATE PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH: US MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES, 1958–1996

The sources of aggregate productivity growth are explored using detailed data for four‐digit US manufacturing industries during 1958–96 and a decomposition formula that allows us to quantify the contribution of structural change. Labour productivity as well as total factor productivity are considered with either value‐added or employment shares serving as aggregation weights. It is shown that structural change generally works in favour of industries with increasing productivity. This effect is particularly strong in the years since 1990, in high‐tech industries and in durable goods producing industries. The impact of the computer revolution can be clearly identified.     

The impacts of imports and trade liberalization in Brazil: Insights from an aggregate cost function

Brazil has faced and continues to struggle with difficult economic challenges, including achieving noninflationary economic growth and a manageable external deficit. This paper presents the results of the estimation of an aggregate translog cost function with inputs of domestic capital and labor and imports and outputs of consumption and investment goods. The resulting calculated elasticities give insights into the relationships among the inputs, as well as the possible impacts of further reducing international trade barriers. The findings suggest that all of the inputs are substitutes for one another and that an increase in imports may have at least short-run negative effects on the demand for domestic capital and labor. However, imports appear to be particularly important in the production of investment goods, so an increase in imports may result in a more than proportionate increase in the output of those products and enhance the long-term growth of the economy. The responses to current challenges facing Brazil will affect its future economic growth as well as have a broader impact on the international scene. The results described here may help to inform policy makers as they address these issues, particularly with respect to international trade policies.