IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jecrev/v61y2010i2p266-281.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Factor Substitution, Mechanization, And Economic Growth

Author

Listed:
  • HIDEKI NAKAMURA

Abstract

This paper tries to explain the polarization of economic growth through mechanization. We derive a complementary relationship between capital accumulation and mechanization. While we assume an external effect that occurs as a result of mechanization, given the external effect, mechanization yields a constant‐elasticity‐of‐substitution production function in which the elasticity‐of‐substitution is greater than unity as the envelope of Cobb–Douglas production functions. When mechanization is difficult, which implies a low value for the elasticity‐of‐substitution, and the external effect is weak, there is potential for multiple steady states to exist.

Suggested Citation

  • Hideki Nakamura, 2010. "Factor Substitution, Mechanization, And Economic Growth," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 61(2), pages 266-281, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jecrev:v:61:y:2010:i:2:p:266-281
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-5876.2009.00486.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5876.2009.00486.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1468-5876.2009.00486.x?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Futagami, Koichi & Mino, Kazuo, 1993. "Threshold externalities and cyclical growth in a stylized model of capital accumulation," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 99-105.
    2. Joseph Zeira, 1998. "Workers, Machines, and Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(4), pages 1091-1117.
    3. Quah, Danny T, 1996. "Twin Peaks: Growth and Convergence in Models of Distribution Dynamics," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(437), pages 1045-1055, July.
    4. Claude Diebolt & Catherine Kyrtsou, 2005. "New Trends in Macroeconomics," Post-Print hal-00279607, HAL.
    5. Oded_Galor & Andrew Mountford, 2004. "Trading Population for Productivity," Working Papers 2004-16, Brown University, Department of Economics.
    6. repec:hoo:wpaper:e-92-3 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Daron Acemoglu & Fabrizio Zilibotti, 2001. "Productivity Differences," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(2), pages 563-606.
    8. Robert S. Chirinko, 2008. "ó: The Long And Short Of It," CESifo Working Paper Series 2234, CESifo.
    9. Douglas Gollin, 2002. "Getting Income Shares Right," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(2), pages 458-474, April.
    10. Matsuyama, Kiminori, 1992. "Agricultural productivity, comparative advantage, and economic growth," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 317-334, December.
    11. Palivos, Theodore & Karagiannis, Giannis, 2010. "The Elasticity Of Substitution As An Engine Of Growth," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(5), pages 617-628, November.
    12. Hicks, J. R., 1969. "A Theory of Economic History," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198811633.
    13. Kaz Miyagiwa & Chris Papageorgiou, 2003. "Elasticity of substitution and growth: normalized CES in the Diamond model," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 21(1), pages 155-165, January.
    14. Duffy, John & Papageorgiou, Chris, 2000. "A Cross-Country Empirical Investigation of the Aggregate Production Function Specification," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 87-120, March.
    15. Gandolfo, Giancarlo, 2008. "Comment on "C.E.S. production functions in the light of the Cambridge critique"," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 798-800, June.
    16. Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), 2005. "Handbook of Economic Growth," Handbook of Economic Growth, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    17. Claude Diebolt & Faustine Perrin, 2016. "Growth Theories," Springer Books, in: Claude Diebolt & Michael Haupert (ed.), Handbook of Cliometrics, edition 1, pages 177-195, Springer.
    18. Danny Quah, 1996. "Twin Peaks: Growth and Convergence in Models of Distribution Dynamics," CEP Discussion Papers dp0280, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    19. Chirinko, Robert S., 2008. "[sigma]: The long and short of it," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 671-686, June.
    20. Claude Diebolt & Catherine Kyrtsou (ed.), 2005. "New Trends in Macroeconomics," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-540-28556-4, December.
    21. Winford H. Masanjala & Chris Papageorgiou, 2004. "The Solow model with CES technology: nonlinearities and parameter heterogeneity," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(2), pages 171-201.
    22. Rainer Klump & Harald Preissler, 2000. "CES Production Functions and Economic Growth," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 102(1), pages 41-56, March.
    23. Olivier de La Grandville & Rainer Klump, 2000. "Economic Growth and the Elasticity of Substitution: Two Theorems and Some Suggestions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(1), pages 282-291, March.
    24. Palivos, Theodore, 2008. "Comment on "[sigma]: The long and short of it"," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 687-690, June.
    25. Quah, Danny T, 1996. "Convergence Empirics across Economies with (Some) Capital Mobility," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 95-124, March.
    26. Oded Galor & Andrew Mountford, 2004. "Trading Population for Productivity," GE, Growth, Math methods 0410001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    27. Nakamura, Hideki & Nakamura, Masakatsu, 2008. "Constant-Elasticity-Of-Substitution Production Function," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(5), pages 694-701, November.
    28. Nakamura, Hideki, 2009. "Micro-foundation for a constant elasticity of substitution production function through mechanization," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 464-472, September.
    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. Michael Knoblach & Fabian Stöckl, 2020. "What Determines The Elasticity Of Substitution Between Capital And Labor? A Literature Review," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(4), pages 847-875, September.
    2. Kemnitz, Alexander & Knoblach, Michael, 2020. "Endogenous sigma-augmenting technological change: An R&D-based approach," CEPIE Working Papers 02/20, Technische Universität Dresden, Center of Public and International Economics (CEPIE).
    3. Antony, Jürgen, 2014. "Technical change and the elasticity of factor substitution," Beiträge der Hochschule Pforzheim 147, Pforzheim University.

    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. Michael Knoblach & Fabian Stöckl, 2020. "What Determines The Elasticity Of Substitution Between Capital And Labor? A Literature Review," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(4), pages 847-875, September.
    2. Debdulal Mallick, 2012. "The role of capital‐labour substitution in economic growth," Indian Growth and Development Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 5(1), pages 89-101, April.
    3. Litina, Anastasia & Palivos, Theodore, 2010. "The Behavior Of The Saving Rate In The Neoclassical Optimal Growth Model," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(4), pages 482-500, September.
    4. Xue, Jianpo & Yip, Chong K., 2013. "Aggregate elasticity of substitution and economic growth: A synthesis," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 38(PA), pages 60-75.
    5. Kemnitz, Alexander & Knoblach, Michael, 2020. "Endogenous sigma-augmenting technological change: An R&D-based approach," CEPIE Working Papers 02/20, Technische Universität Dresden, Center of Public and International Economics (CEPIE).
    6. Rainer Klump & Peter McAdam & Alpo Willman, 2012. "The Normalized Ces Production Function: Theory And Empirics," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(5), pages 769-799, December.
    7. Raurich, Xavier & Sala, Hector & Sorolla, Valeri, 2012. "Factor shares, the price markup, and the elasticity of substitution between capital and labor," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 181-198.
    8. Dawson, John W. & Sturgill, Brad, 2022. "Market Institutions and Factor Shares Across Countries," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 266-289.
    9. Antony, Jürgen, 2014. "Technical change and the elasticity of factor substitution," Beiträge der Hochschule Pforzheim 147, Pforzheim University.
    10. Manuel A. Gómez, 2020. "Factor substitution, long‐run growth, and speed of convergence in the one‐sector convex endogenous‐growth model," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(1), pages 2-21, February.
    11. Nakamura, Hideki, 2009. "Micro-foundation for a constant elasticity of substitution production function through mechanization," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 464-472, September.
    12. Capolupo, Rosa, 2009. "The New Growth Theories and Their Empirics after Twenty Years," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 3, pages 1-72.
    13. Paul, Saumik, 2019. "Labor Income Share Dynamics with Variable Elasticity of Substitution," IZA Discussion Papers 12418, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Alberto Bucci & Chiara Del Bo, 2012. "On the interaction between public and private capital in economic growth," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 106(2), pages 133-152, June.
    15. Chris Papageorgiou & Kaz Miyagiwa, 2003. "The Elasticity of Substitution, Hicks' Conjectures, and Economic Growth," Departmental Working Papers 2003-08, Department of Economics, Louisiana State University.
    16. Growiec, Jakub & Mućk, Jakub, 2020. "Isoelastic Elasticity Of Substitution Production Functions," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 24(7), pages 1597-1634, October.
    17. Marianne Saam, 2004. "Distributional Effects of Growth and the Elasticity of Substitution," DEGIT Conference Papers c009_031, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.
    18. Miguel A. Leon-Ledesma & Mathan Satchi, 2015. "Appropriate Technology and the Labour Share," Studies in Economics 1505, School of Economics, University of Kent, revised Nov 2016.
    19. Miyagiwa, Kaz & Papageorgiou, Chris, 2007. "Endogenous aggregate elasticity of substitution," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 31(9), pages 2899-2919, September.
    20. Growiec, Jakub, 2013. "A microfoundation for normalized CES production functions with factor-augmenting technical change," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(11), pages 2336-2350.

    More about this item

    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:bla:jecrev:v:61:y:2010:i:2:p:266-281. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/jeaaaea.html .

    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.