IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/cambje/v32y2008i3p441-459.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Correcting for biases when estimating production functions: an illusion of the laws of algebra?

Author

Listed:
  • Jesus Felipe
  • Rana Hasan
  • J. S. L. McCombie

Abstract

This paper argues that the true cause of the endogeneity bias that allegedly appears when estimating production functions, and which the literature has tried to deal with since the 1940s, is simply the result of omitted-variable bias due to an incorrect approximation to an accounting identity. As a result we question recent attempts to solve the problem by developing new estimators.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Jesus Felipe & Rana Hasan & J. S. L. McCombie, 2008. "Correcting for biases when estimating production functions: an illusion of the laws of algebra?," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 32(3), pages 441-459, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:cambje:v:32:y:2008:i:3:p:441-459
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/cje/bem043
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Avi J. Cohen, 2003. "Retrospectives: Whatever Happened to the Cambridge Capital Theory Controversies?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(1), pages 199-214, Winter.
    2. Richard Blundell & Stephen Bond, 2000. "GMM Estimation with persistent panel data: an application to production functions," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3), pages 321-340.
    3. Simon, Herbert A, 1979. " On Parsimonious Explanations of Production Relations," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 81(4), pages 459-474.
    4. Jesus Felipe & Franklin M. Fisher, 2003. "Aggregation in Production Functions: What Applied Economists should Know," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2-3), pages 208-262, May.
    5. Shaikh, Anwar, 1974. "Laws of Production and Laws of Algebra: The Humbug Production Function," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 56(1), pages 115-120, February.
    6. Olley, G Steven & Pakes, Ariel, 1996. "The Dynamics of Productivity in the Telecommunications Equipment Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(6), pages 1263-1297, November.
    7. Wibe, Soren A, 1984. "Engineering Production Functions: A Survey," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 51(204), pages 401-411, November.
    8. James Levinsohn & Amil Petrin, 2000. "Estimating Production Functions Using Inputs to Control for Unobservables," NBER Working Papers 7819, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Simon, Herbert A, 1979. "Rational Decision Making in Business Organizations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 69(4), pages 493-513, September.
    10. James Levinsohn & Amil Petrin, 2003. "Estimating Production Functions Using Inputs to Control for Unobservables," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 70(2), pages 317-341.
    11. Samuelson, Paul A, 1979. "Paul Douglas's Measurement of Production Functions and Marginal Productivities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(5), pages 923-939, October.
    12. Haijime Katayama & Shihua Lu & James Tybout, 2003. "Why Plant-Level Productivity Studies are Often Misleading, and an Alternative Approach to Interference," NBER Working Papers 9617, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    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. Yu, Bingxin & Zhu, Tingju & Breisinger, Clemens & Hai, Nguyen Manh, 2010. "Impacts of climate change on agriculture and policy options for adaptation," IFPRI discussion papers 1015, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    2. Miaojie Yu, 2010. "Processing Trade, Firm's Productivity, and Tariff Reductions : Evidence from Chinese Products," Macroeconomics Working Papers 22799, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    3. Miaojie Yu & Guangliang Ye & Baozhi Qu, 2013. "Trade Liberalisation, Product Complexity and Productivity Improvement: Evidence from Chinese Firms," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(7), pages 912-934, July.
    4. Yu, Bingxin & Zhu, Tingju & Breisinger, Clemens & Manh Hai, Nguyen, 2012. "Examine the Agriculture, Poverty, and Climate Change Nexus in Vietnam," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126876, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    5. João Prates Romero, 2016. "Increasing Returns To Scale, Technological Catch-Up And Research Intensity: An Industry-Level Investigation Combining Eu Klems Productivity Data With Patent Data," Anais do XLIII Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 43rd Brazilian Economics Meeting] 102, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    6. Zhenyu Zhang & Karina Schoengold, 2011. "Carbon emissions control policies in China's power generation sector," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 3(3), pages 350-368, September.
    7. Parajuli, Ranjan & Østergaard, Poul Alberg & Dalgaard, Tommy & Pokharel, Govind Raj, 2014. "Energy consumption projection of Nepal: An econometric approach," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 432-444.
    8. Estola, Matti & Dannenberg, Alia, 2012. "Testing the neo-classical and the Newtonian theory of production," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 391(24), pages 6519-6527.
    9. Jesus Felipe & John S.L. McCombie, 2013. "The Aggregate Production Function and the Measurement of Technical Change," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1975.
    10. Jesus Felipe & John McCombie, 2012. "Aggregate Production Functions and the Accounting Identity Critique: Further Reflections on Temple's Criticisms and Misunderstandings," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_718, Levy Economics Institute.

    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:oup:cambje:v:32:y:2008:i:3:p:441-459. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Oxford University Press) or (Christopher F. Baum). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/cje .

    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 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.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.