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US Elasticities of Substitution and Factor-Augmentation at the Industry Level

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  • Andrew T. Young

    (Department of Economics, West Virginia University)

Abstract

We provide industry-level estimates of the elasticity of substitution (?) between capital and labor in the US economy. We also estimate rates of factor-augmentation. Aggregate estimates are produced using the same data. Our empirical model comes from the first-order conditions associated with a CES production function. Our data represents 35 industries at roughly the 2-digit SIC level from 1960 to 2005 and covers the entire US economy. We find that aggregate US ? is less than unity and perhaps less than 0.5.The same is likely true for the large majority of individual industries. We find no consistent and/or systematic evidence that aggregate ? is either greater or less than the value-added share-weighted average of industry ?s. Also, there is still considerable variation across the industry-level ? point estimates. Technical change in the aggregate appears to be net labor-augmenting. However, at the industry-level there is little evidence that the type of technical change is uniform across industries. For many individual industries, technical change may be characterized by net capital-augmentation.

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File URL: http://www.be.wvu.edu/div/econ//work/pdf_files/10-06.pdf
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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Department of Economics, West Virginia University in its series Working Papers with number 10-06.

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Length: 48 pages
Date of creation: 2010
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:wvu:wpaper:10-06

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Postal: P.O. Box 6025, Morgantown, WV 26506-6025
Phone: (304) 293-7859
Fax: (304) 293-2233
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Web page: http://www.be.wvu.edu/div/econ/
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Related research

Keywords: elasticity of substitution; factor-augmenting technical change; labor-augmenting technical change; capital-augmenting technical change; corporate taxation; industry-level studies;

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References

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  1. Berndt, Ernst R, 1976. "Reconciling Alternative Estimates of the Elasticity of Substitution," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 58(1), pages 59-68, February.
  2. Charles I. Jones & Dean Scrimgeour, 2008. "A New Proof of Uzawa's Steady-State Growth Theorem," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(1), pages 180-182, February.
  3. Klump, Rainer & McAdam, Peter & Willman, Alpo, 2008. "Unwrapping some euro area growth puzzles: Factor substitution, productivity and unemployment," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 645-666, June.
  4. Kaz Miyagiwa & Chris Papageorgiou, 2007. "Endogenous Aggregate Elasticity of Substitution," Emory Economics 0707, Department of Economics, Emory University (Atlanta).
  5. Dale W. Jorgenson, 1991. "Productivity and Economic Growth," NBER Chapters, in: Fifty Years of Economic Measurement: The Jubilee of the Conference on Research in Income and Wealth, pages 19-118 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  6. Behrman, Jere R, 1972. "Sectoral Elasticities of Substitution between Capital and Labor in a Developing Economy: Time Series Analysis in the Case of Postwar Chile," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 40(2), pages 311-26, March.
  7. Daron Acemoglu, 2003. "Labor- And Capital-Augmenting Technical Change," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 1(1), pages 1-37, 03.
  8. Edward J. Balistreri & Christine A. McDaniel & Eina Vivian Wong, 2003. "An Estimation of U.S. Industry-Level Capital-Labor Substitution," Computational Economics 0303001, EconWPA.
  9. Caballero, Ricardo J, 1994. "Small Sample Bias and Adjustment Costs," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 76(1), pages 52-58, February.
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  12. Johansen, Soren, 1995. "Likelihood-Based Inference in Cointegrated Vector Autoregressive Models," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198774501, September.
  13. Rainer Klump & Peter McAdam & Alpo Willman, 2007. "Factor Substitution and Factor-Augmenting Technical Progress in the United States: A Normalized Supply-Side System Approach," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 89(1), pages 183-192, February.
  14. Robert S. Chirinko & Steven M. Fazzari & Andrew P. Meyer, 2002. "That Elusive Elasticity: A Long-Panel Approach To Estimating The Price Sensitivity Of Business Capital," 10th International Conference on Panel Data, Berlin, July 5-6, 2002 B3-1, International Conferences on Panel Data.
  15. Robert S. Chirinko, 2008. "ó: The Long And Short Of It," CESifo Working Paper Series 2234, CESifo Group Munich.
  16. Ronald W. Jones, 1965. "The Structure of Simple General Equilibrium Models," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 73, pages 557.
  17. Ricardo J. Caballero & Eduardo M. R. A. Engel & John C. Haltiwanger, 1995. "Plant-Level Adjustment and Aggregate Investment Dynamics," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 26(2), pages 1-54.
  18. Charles L. Ballard & Don Fullerton & John B. Shoven & John Whalley, 1985. "A General Equilibrium Model for Tax Policy Evaluation," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number ball85-1, October.
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Cited by:
  1. Ramón López & Sang Won Yoon, 2013. "Sustainable Economic Growth: Structural Transformation with Consumption Flexibility," Working Papers wp375, University of Chile, Department of Economics.

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