This paper presents a simple methodology to estimate the elasticity of substitution between labor and capital for firms operating in perfectly competitive markets with CRS production functions. It is applied in a cross-country sample to 28 3-digit ISIC manufacturing industries. The econometric procedure relies on measures of sectorial capital stock, that are estimated for a sample of more than 30 countries. Unlike older studies, the estimates are consistent with hicks-neutral cross-country technology differences. The results reveal that in most industries the elasticity of substitution is smaller than one, rejecting the null hypothesis of Cobb-Douglas production functions. The paper provides then an estimation of ¾LK at a level of aggregation extremely useful for research in the international trade literature.
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
file. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. in its series Documentos de Trabajo with number
226.
Length: Date of creation: 2002 Date of revision: Publication status: Published as "A Cross-Country Estimation of the Elasticity of Substitution between Labor and Capital in Manufacturing Industries", Cuadernos de Economía, Vol. 40, Nº 120, pp. 239-257, 2003. Handle: RePEc:ioe:doctra:226
Cited by: (explanations, 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.)