IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/streco/v56y2021icp27-34.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Labor-augmenting technical change and the wage share: New microeconomic foundations

Author

Listed:
  • Tavani, Daniele
  • Zamparelli, Luca

Abstract

An important question in alternative economic theories has to do with the relationship between the functional income distribution and the growth rate of labor productivity. According to both the induced innovation hypothesis and Marx-biased technical change, labor productivity growth should be an increasing function of the wage share. In this paper, we first discuss the shortcomings of both theories and then provide a novel microeconomic foundation for a direct relationship between the wage share and labor productivity growth. The result arises because of profit-seeking behavior by capitalist firms that face a trade-off between investing in new capital stock and innovating to save on labor costs. Embedding this finding in the Goodwin (1967) growth cycle model, we show that the resulting steady state is locally stable. We also numerically evaluate the persistence (or lack thereof) of growth cycles for varying elasticities of innovation to R&D spending and investment rates.

Suggested Citation

  • Tavani, Daniele & Zamparelli, Luca, 2021. "Labor-augmenting technical change and the wage share: New microeconomic foundations," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 27-34.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:56:y:2021:i:c:p:27-34
    DOI: 10.1016/j.strueco.2020.09.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0954349X20303970
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.strueco.2020.09.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shah, Anup & Desai, Meghnad, 1981. "Growth Cycles with Induced Technical Change," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 91(364), pages 1006-1010, December.
    2. Wim Naudé & Waldo Krugell & Marianne Matthee, 2010. "Globalization and Local Economic Growth in South Africa," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Bruno Dallago & Chiara Guglielmetti (ed.), Local Economies and Global Competitiveness, chapter 2, pages 45-74, Palgrave Macmillan.
    3. H. Uzawa, 1971. "On a Two-Sector Model of Economic Growth," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: F. H. Hahn (ed.), Readings in the Theory of Growth, chapter 3, pages 19-26, Palgrave Macmillan.
    4. Olivier Allain, 2015. "Tackling the instability of growth: a Kaleckian-Harrodian model with an autonomous expenditure component," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 39(5), pages 1351-1371.
    5. Eckhard Hein & Artur Tarassow, 2010. "Distribution, aggregate demand and productivity growth: theory and empirical results for six OECD countries based on a post-Kaleckian model," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 34(4), pages 727-754.
    6. Allen,Robert C., 2009. "The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521868273.
    7. Thomas R. Michl, 2002. "The Fossil Production Function in a Vintage Model," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(1), pages 53-68, March.
    8. Luke Petach & Daniele Tavani, 2020. "Income shares, secular stagnation and the long‐run distribution of wealth," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(1), pages 235-255, February.
    9. Rudiger von Arnim & Jose Barrales, 2015. "Demand-driven Goodwin cycles with Kaldorian and Kaleckian features," Review of Keynesian Economics, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 3(3), pages 351-373, July.
    10. Thomas Michl, 1999. "Biased Technical Change and the Aggregate Production Function," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(2), pages 193-206.
    11. van der Ploeg, F., 1987. "Growth cycles, induced technical change, and perpetual conflict over the distribution of income," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 1-12.
    12. Tavani Daniele & Zamparelli Luca, 2015. "Endogenous technical change, employment and distribution in the Goodwin model of the growth cycle," Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics & Econometrics, De Gruyter, vol. 19(2), pages 209-216, April.
    13. Eduardo Cavallo & Sebastian Galiani & Ilan Noy & Juan Pantano, 2013. "Catastrophic Natural Disasters and Economic Growth," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(5), pages 1549-1561, December.
    14. Luca Zamparelli, 2015. "Induced Innovation, Endogenous Technical Change and Income Distribution in a Labor-Constrained Model of Classical Growth," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(2), pages 243-262, May.
    15. Fabio Freitas & Franklin Serrano, 2015. "Growth Rate and Level Effects, the Stability of the Adjustment of Capacity to Demand and the Sraffian Supermultiplier," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(3), pages 258-281, July.
    16. Codrina Rada, 2012. "Social Security Tax And Endogenous Technical Change In An Economy With An Aging Population," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(4), pages 727-756, November.
    17. Kortum, Samuel, 1993. "Equilibrium R&D and the Patent-R&D Ratio: U.S. Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(2), pages 450-457, May.
    18. Funk, Peter, 2002. "Induced Innovation Revisited," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 69(273), pages 155-171, February.
    19. Mauro Caminati & Serena Sordi, 2019. "Demand‐led growth with endogenous innovation," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 70(3), pages 405-422, July.
    20. William D. Nordhaus, 1973. "Some Skeptical Thoughts on the Theory of Induced Innovation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 87(2), pages 208-219.
    21. Arindrajit Dube & T. William Lester & Michael Reich, 2016. "Minimum Wage Shocks, Employment Flows, and Labor Market Frictions," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(3), pages 663-704.
    22. Adalmir Marquetti, 2004. "Do Rising Real Wages Increase The Rate Of Labor‐Saving Technical Change? Some Econometric Evidence," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(4), pages 432-441, November.
    23. Doruk Cengiz & Arindrajit Dube & Attila Lindner & Ben Zipperer, 2019. "The Effect of Minimum Wages on Low-Wage Jobs," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(3), pages 1405-1454.
    24. Serrano, Franklin, 1995. "Long Period Effective Demand and the Sraffian Supermultiplier," Contributions to Political Economy, Oxford University Press, vol. 14(0), pages 67-90.
    25. Foley, Duncan K., 2003. "Endogenous technical change with externalities in a classical growth model," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 167-189, October.
    26. F. A. Lutz, 1961. "The Theory of Capital," International Economic Association Series, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-08452-4 edited by D. C. Hague, December.
    27. Peter Howitt, 1999. "Steady Endogenous Growth with Population and R & D Inputs Growing," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(4), pages 715-730, August.
    28. Storm, Servaas & Naastepad, C. W. M., 2012. "Macroeconomics Beyond the NAIRU," Economics Books, Harvard University Press, number 9780674062276, Spring.
    29. Gilberto Tadeu Lima, 2004. "Endogenous Technological Innovation, Capital Accumulation And Distributional Dynamics," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(4), pages 386-408, November.
    30. Nicholas Kaldor, 1961. "Capital Accumulation and Economic Growth," International Economic Association Series, in: D. C. Hague (ed.), The Theory of Capital, chapter 0, pages 177-222, Palgrave Macmillan.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Eric Kemp-Benedict, 2022. "A classical-evolutionary model of technological change," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 32(4), pages 1303-1343, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniele Tavani & Luca Zamparelli, 2017. "Endogenous Technical Change In Alternative Theories Of Growth And Distribution," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 1272-1303, December.
    2. Marwil J. Dávila-Fernández, 2018. "Alternative Approaches to Technological Change when Growth is BoPC," Department of Economics University of Siena 795, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    3. Stamegna, Marco, 2022. "A Kaleckian growth model of secular stagnation with induced innovation," MPRA Paper 113794, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Jose Barrales‐Ruiz & Ivan Mendieta‐Muñoz & Codrina Rada & Daniele Tavani & Rudiger von Arnim, 2022. "The distributive cycle: Evidence and current debates," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(2), pages 468-503, April.
    5. Ekaterina Ponomareva & Alexandra Bozhechkova & Alexandr Knobel, 2012. "Factors of Economic Growth," Published Papers 172, Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy, revised 2013.
    6. Stamegna, Marco, 2022. "Induced innovation, the distributive cycle, and the changing pattern of labour productivity cyclicality: a SVAR analysis for the US economy," MPRA Paper 113855, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Daniele Tavani, 2013. "Bargaining over productivity and wages when technical change is induced: implications for growth, distribution, and employment," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 109(3), pages 207-244, July.
    8. Jose Barrales-Ruiz, Ivan Mendieta-Muñoz, Codrina Rada, Daniele Tavani, Rudiger von Arnim, 2020. "The distributive cycle: Evidence and current debates," Working Paper Series, Department of Economics, University of Utah 2020_07, University of Utah, Department of Economics.
    9. Stamegna, Marco, 2022. "Wage inequality and induced innovation in a classical-Marxian growth model," MPRA Paper 113805, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Luca Zamparelli, 2009. "Direction and Intensity of Technical Change: a Micro Model," Working Papers 4, Doctoral School of Economics, Sapienza University of Rome.
    11. Zamparelli, Luca, 2022. "On Labor Productivity Growth and the Wage Share with Endogenous Size and Direction of Technical Change," MPRA Paper 112684, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. zamparelli, luca, 2008. "Direction and intensity of technical change: a micro-founded growth model," MPRA Paper 10843, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Daniele Tavani & Luca Zamparelli, 2020. "Growth, income distribution, and the ‘entrepreneurial state’," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 117-141, January.
    14. Mariolis Theodore & Konstantakis Konstantinos N. & Michaelides Panayotis G. & Tsionas Efthymios G., 2019. "A non-linear Keynesian Goodwin-type endogenous model of the cycle: Bayesian evidence for the USA," Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics & Econometrics, De Gruyter, vol. 23(1), pages 1-16, February.
    15. Rada, Codrina & Tavani, Daniele & von Arnim, Rudiger & Zamparelli, Luca, 2023. "Classical and Keynesian models of inequality and stagnation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 442-461.
    16. Joao Paulo A. de Souza, 2014. "Real wages and labor-saving technical change: evidence from a panel of manufacturing industries in mature and labor-surplus economies," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2014-03, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    17. Luca Zamparelli, 2015. "Induced Innovation, Endogenous Technical Change and Income Distribution in a Labor-Constrained Model of Classical Growth," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(2), pages 243-262, May.
    18. Marwil J. Dávila-Fernández, 2020. "Alternative approaches to technological change in a small open economy," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 279-317, April.
    19. Daniele Tavani & Luca Zamparelli, 2020. "Labor-Augmenting Technical Change and the Labor Share: New Microeconomic Foundations," Working Papers 2/20, Sapienza University of Rome, DISS.
    20. Eckhard Hein, 2012. ""Financialization," distribution, capital accumulation, and productivity growth in a post-Kaleckian model," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(3), pages 475-496.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Endogenous technical change; Income shares; Employment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:56:y:2021:i:c:p:27-34. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/525148 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.