The shape of production functions and the direction of technical change

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Jones, CI
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Berkeley; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-5533
• DOI: 10.1162/0033553053970142
• 发表日期: 2005
• 页码: 517-549
• 关键词: LAW; GROWTH; distributions; INVESTMENT; INNOVATION; MODEL

摘要

This paper views the standard production function in macroeconomics as a reduced form and derives its properties from microfoundations. The shape of this production function is governed by the distribution of ideas. If that distribution is Pareto, then two results obtain: the global production function is Cobb-Douglas, and technical change in the long run is labor-augmenting. Kortum showed that Pareto distributions are necessary if search-based idea models are to exhibit steady-state growth. Here we show that this same assumption delivers the additional results about the shape of the production function and the direction of technical change.