Using French data on industrial firms over the period 1989-2001, the authors estimate a "flexible" Translog production function that accounts for the volumes and durations of factor utilization. They draw on the framework proposed by Blundell and Bond (2000), assuming that serially correlated shocks allow a dynamic representation of the production function, and they choose the system-generalized method of moments as the reference estimation method. The authors show that duration of capital utilization is statistically significant and that the dynamic common-factor representation cannot be rejected. Furthermore, the duration of work is not statistically significant. Finally, the authors cannot reject the assumption of a Cobb-Douglas technology. Their result can be explained by the fact that durations of factor utilization are explicitly taken into consideration in the production function. Otherwise, the Translog specification is preferred to the Cobb-Douglas production function.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Bank of Canada in its series Working Papers with number
04-19.
Find related papers by JEL classification: C33 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Models with Panel Data D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Capital and Total Factor Productivity; Capacity J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.: