ERN: Production; Cost; Capital & Total Factor Productivity; Value Theory (Topic)最新文献

{"title":"Keynes Between the Classics and Sraffa: On the Issue of the Numéraire","authors":"Michele Magnani","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3495479","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3495479","url":null,"abstract":"The paper sketches a coherent history of the choice of the measure standard from Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations to Sraffa’s Production of Commodities. As neither the Smithian labour commanded unit nor the Ricardian-Marxian labour embodied one provide a general solution to the dilemma concerning the finding of an invariable standard, the author shows the shortcomings of both methods in an analytically rigorous way. Several years later, the largely unacknowledged fourth chapter of the General Theory once again tackles the matter of measuring aggregate values adopting a net approach and introducing an ad hoc unit. Concerned by the inherent difficulties of the operation, Keynes starts from an harsh criticism towards Pigou’s notion of national dividend to end up asking himself a number of questions that makes him partially lean towards the later Sraffian approach as presented in Production of Commodities, though his stance is not fully compliant either with the premises or the aims of Piero Sraffa’s theoretical framework. In the final part, a general solution based on net labour productivity is considered.","PeriodicalId":237187,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Production; Cost; Capital & Total Factor Productivity; Value Theory (Topic)","volume":"33 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127535288","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Threshold Utility Model with Applications to Retailing and Discrete Choice Models","authors":"G. Gallego, Ruxian Wang","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3420155","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3420155","url":null,"abstract":"We propose and study a threshold utility model (TUM) where consumers buy any product whose net utility exceeds a non-negative, product-specific threshold. The thresholds are selected to maximize the expected surplus of the representative consumer subject to a bound on the expected number of selected products. We show that at optimality the thresholds are product-invariant and that the generalized extreme value (GEV) model is a special case of the TUM. The TUM is shown to yield higher consumer surplus than observing all the products' utilities and selecting the best when the bound is an integer. The model can also be applied with proxy utilities as in on-line shopping, and portfolio management. Comparative statics are applied to the threshold, the purchase probabilities and the expected surplus. Extensions to multi-unit TUM, weighted TUM, multiplicative TUM, discontinuous utility and bound-induced copulas are also considered. We also provide solutions to pricing and assortment optimization problems under the TUM.","PeriodicalId":237187,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Production; Cost; Capital & Total Factor Productivity; Value Theory (Topic)","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-07-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122117294","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Demography and Productivity in the Italian Manufacturing Industry: Yesterday and Today","authors":"Carlo Ciccarelli, Matteo Gomellini, P. Sestito","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3386268","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3386268","url":null,"abstract":"Population ageing and lack of productivity growth characterize most western countries. We focus on Italy and investigate whether the availability of a young population represents a determinant of manufacturing productivity growth. We follow a historical comparative analysis and provide evidence of the strength of this relation in the past (1861-1911) and today (1961-2011). To account for the sizeable regional heterogeneity characterizing historically the country we use data disaggregated at the provincial level. Our analysis suggests that the availability of a young population represents indeed one of the determinant of manufacturing productivity growth. The strength of the relation was higher in the past than today, but ageing is still nevertheless a factor that cannot be neglected from a policy perspective.","PeriodicalId":237187,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Production; Cost; Capital & Total Factor Productivity; Value Theory (Topic)","volume":"156 3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125914455","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Пространственное развитие транспортной инфраструктуры и степень ее влияния на совокупную факторную производительность в России (Spatial Development of Transport Infrastructure and the Degree of Its Influence on Aggregate Factor Productivity in Russia)","authors":"Daria A. Radchenko, Yuriy Ponomarev, Yuriy Ponomarev","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3361023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3361023","url":null,"abstract":"Russian Abstract: В соответствии с поручениями Президента Российской Федерации, перед российской экономикой стоит задача попадания в пятерку крупнейших экономик мира. Одним из основных способов решения данной задачи может стать повышение совокупной факторной производительности, в том числе за счет развития транспортной инфраструктуры как опорного каркаса российской экономики. Это приводит к необходимости актуализации существующих стратегических и программных документов, определяющих развитие российской транспортной системы, в направлении повышения вклада в СФП через связность территорий, повышение мобильности трудовых ресурсов и безопасное ускорение транспортировки товаров. Поэтому корректная оценка степени сформированности транспортной инфраструктуры на региональном уровне, положительных эффектов, которые возникают в зоне ее тяготения, и влияния ее развития на совокупную факторную производительность, чему посвящено проведенное РАНХиГС исследование, является кране актуальной задачей. \u0000 \u0000English Abstract: In accordance with the instructions of the President of the Russian Federation, the Russian economy is faced with the task of getting into the top five largest economies in the world. One of the main ways to solve this problem can be to increase the aggregate factor productivity, including through the development of transport infrastructure as a supporting framework for the Russian economy. This leads to the need to update the existing strategic and program documents that determine the development of the Russian transport system in the direction of increasing the contribution to the TFP through the connectivity of the territories, increasing the mobility of labor resources and safe acceleration of the transportation of goods. Therefore, a correct assessment of the degree of formation of the transport infrastructure at the regional level, the positive effects that arise in the area of its development, and the impact of its development on the aggregate factor productivity, which the research conducted by the RANEPA is dedicated to, is an important task.","PeriodicalId":237187,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Production; Cost; Capital & Total Factor Productivity; Value Theory (Topic)","volume":"51 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121212407","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"'Cost of Production' and the Theory of the Rate of Profit","authors":"J. Eatwell","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3348731","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3348731","url":null,"abstract":"Adam Smith set economists and examination question: what determines long-run normal prices and the associated rate of profit. The fundamental difficulty is that the long-run equilibrium prices of reproducible means of production (Smith’s “natural” prices) must satisfy two conditions at the same time: they must clear the markets for the endowment of reproducible goods, and must be equal to the long-run prices associated with the reproduction of those goods.<br><br>In the determination of normal prices in an economy with reproducible means of production, the term “cost of production” has no meaning since prices of reproducible goods enter their own “cost”. The concept of cost production is valid in an economy in which goods are defined by their physical essence and their location in time, when by definition no good is reproduced and “discounted” prices are determined without reference to a rate of interest (i.e. rate of profit). But the interpretation of such prices as “embodying” a general rate of interest lacks any coherent foundation, as was made clear by Malinvaud (1965, p.233):<br><br>….. the relationships studied here are meaningful only under precise normalisation rules for undiscounted prices. Only discounted prices are determined by competitive equilibrium, or by the price system associated with an optimum. In the absence of a normalisation rule the interest rates are not defined and can assume any value greater than -1.<br><br>There is no neo-classical theory of the rate of profit.<br><br>","PeriodicalId":237187,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Production; Cost; Capital & Total Factor Productivity; Value Theory (Topic)","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134077572","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Pass-Through of Cost Reductions in Open Auction Markets with Application to Merger Effects","authors":"K. Waehrer","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3334607","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3334607","url":null,"abstract":"Here we analyze how, in an open procurement auction, cost reductions among suppliers bidding to sell to a buyer affect the payoffs to the buyer and suppliers. When a single supplier enjoys a reduction in cost, its increase in expected payoff is equal to the expected increase in total surplus from the cost reduction. The buyer benefits not by capturing a portion of the increase in surplus but instead gains at the expense of the suppliers who do not enjoy the cost decrease. The buyer's benefit from a cost decrease, increases in the concentration among the suppliers who do not enjoy the cost decrease. These results have implications for vertical integration and merger analysis. Increases in concentration increase the incentive of buyers who are integrated upstream to make cost reducing investments in the supply of the good while the investment incentives of non-integrated suppliers remain unchanged. In terms of merger analysis these results suggest that pass through of merger specific cost savings will be higher if the non-merging firms in the market are more concentrated. In addition, mergers increase the incentives for vertically integrated sellers to make cost reducing investments, which may serve to mitigate the anticompetitive effects of a merger.","PeriodicalId":237187,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Production; Cost; Capital & Total Factor Productivity; Value Theory (Topic)","volume":"170 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124741939","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Firms' Internal Networks and Local Economic Shocks","authors":"Xavier Giroud, Holger M. Mueller","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2915096","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2915096","url":null,"abstract":"Using confidential establishment-level data from the US Census Bureau’s Longitudinal Business Database, this paper documents how local shocks propagate across US regions through firms’ internal networks of establishments. Consistent with a model of optimal within-firm resource allocation, we find that establishment-level employment is sensitive to shocks in distant regions in which the establishment’s parent firm is operating, and that the elasticity with respect to such shocks increases with the firm’s financial constraint. At the aggregate regional level, we find that aggregate county-level employment is sensitive to shocks in distant counties linked through firms’ internal networks. (JEL D22, G32, L14, L22, R23, R32)","PeriodicalId":237187,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Production; Cost; Capital & Total Factor Productivity; Value Theory (Topic)","volume":"31 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126917447","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"What Explains Labor's Declining Share of Revenue in Major League Baseball?","authors":"J. Bradbury","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3092381","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3092381","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines reasons for the declining share of revenue going to Major League Baseball players. Though the players’ union and team owners have proposed competing explanations, the phenomenon has not received any rigorous academic study. Economic theories for the similar decline of labor’s share in the macroeconomy provide possible explanations. The ability to estimate baseball players’ marginal revenue products through their performance offers a unique opportunity to examine the role of worker productivity in determining labor’s share of income in general. The analysis indicates that the returns to player performance have declined and that collective bargaining agreement terms that promote revenue sharing among teams appear to play a significant role. In addition, increased returns from new non-player revenue sources have lowered the share of league revenue going to players. Competition from substitute labor inputs and changes in returns to physical capital do not appear to be important factors.","PeriodicalId":237187,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Production; Cost; Capital & Total Factor Productivity; Value Theory (Topic)","volume":"66 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128644994","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Misallocation in Economies with Financial Frictions and Firing Costs","authors":"Marcos Dinerstein","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3293356","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3293356","url":null,"abstract":"Emerging economies are characterized as having underdeveloped financial markets. Furthermore, many of these economies have employment protection laws that make it costly for firms to fire workers. Understanding the interaction between these features is key for evaluating financial and labor policy reforms since they have a direct impact on the allocation of resources and aggregate productivity. This paper quantifies the effect on aggregate productivity of an improvement in financial development in economies with firing costs. I develop a small open economy model with heterogeneous firms that face collateral constraints and have to pay firing costs. I calibrate the model using census plant-level data from the manufacturing sector in Chile. I find that aggregate productivity increases by 2.5 percent following a financial reform that makes Chile's level of financial development comparable to that of the United Kingdom. Ignoring firing costs underestimates the impact of the reform, predicting an increase in productivity of 0.3 percent. Acknowledging firing costs introduces two reasons why the financial reform has a stronger impact. First, firms with high past employment hoard labor and, as a result, demand more capital, which makes them more likely to be financially constrained. Second, an increase in wages following the reform increases the effective firing cost and hence discourages firms with low past employment from hiring. As a result, these firms demand less capital than they would if there were no firing costs and are less likely to be financially constrained. Finally, I study the effect on productivity of the interaction between these two frictions when evaluating labor and financial reforms. I do this for a range of economies with plausible initial levels of financial development and firing costs.","PeriodicalId":237187,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Production; Cost; Capital & Total Factor Productivity; Value Theory (Topic)","volume":"36 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124925006","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Theory of Value, Profits and Economic Crises","authors":"Jiandong Li, Yuchun Zou","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3223952","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3223952","url":null,"abstract":"This article starts with definitions of value and profit and constructs a new interpretation of the economic crisis. Exchange of goods stems from different people's different judgments on the value of goods, and twice exchanges of goods lead to commercial profits. Production profit is essentially the same as commercial profit. It also requires twice exchanges. The capitalists buy labors from the workers and sell the products to the workers. The difference in the prices of the labors and products constitutes the profit. The capitalists get the profit but the workers do not share the profit. Such profit distribution leads to the fact that the new products sale cannot be sustained within a closed economy, resulting in an economic crisis, manifested as a relative surplus of product. This article focuses on the field of circulation and exposes the exploitation of workers by the two exchanges, providing a theoretical approach to understand the rich-poor divergence.","PeriodicalId":237187,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Production; Cost; Capital & Total Factor Productivity; Value Theory (Topic)","volume":"81 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134067824","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}