We estimate separate productions functions for approximately 450 manufacturing firms each in France and the United States and for 850 manufacturing firms in Japan, covering the 13 year period 1967-1979, and focus on the wide dispersion in the estimated slope coefficients in all three countries. The main question asked Is: "Is this dispersion real?" Could it be just a reflection of sampling variability or is it an indication of real heterogeneity? We estimate the "true" dispersion using three different approaches: Maximum Likelihood, regressions of squares and cross-products of residuals, and Swamy's "residual" method, and try to interpret the somewhat different answers which emerge. In particular, we investigate the "reality" of the estimated heterogeneity by looking at its stability over time and by relating it to differences in capital shares and the industrial structure. We conclude that the observed heterogeneity is not "real." It is caused by some non-stable misspecification of our simple model, implying that we are unlikely to discern different but stable individual production relations in samples of this size which contain only a limited number of the economically relevant variables.
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.
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number
2619.
Length: Date of creation: Sep 1991 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:2619
Note: PR Contact details of provider: Postal: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A. Phone: 617-868-3900 Email: Web page: http://www.nber.org More information through EDIRC
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: ().
Related research
Keywords:
Other versions of this item:
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.:
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.)