Artha Vijnana: Journal of The Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics

Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access
Open Access Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Restricted Access Subscription Access

Unproductive Production Function:Cobb-Douglas Production Function Revisited


Affiliations
1 Presidency University, Kolkata 700073, west Bengal, India
2 Department of Economics, Presidency University, Kolkata 700073, West Bengal, India
     

   Subscribe/Renew Journal


Some major problems associated with production function analysis of survey data are reviewed in this paper in the hope that it will offer impetus to research work. Problems arise in the treatment of capital, aggregation of inputs and outputs, aggregation of functional relationship, specification of the function and statistical estimation. These problems hitherto have not been resolved and doubts remain regarding the validity of farm-level-production function analysis.
Subscription Login to verify subscription
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Adelman, I. and O. Lobo (1956), Some Observations on Full Employment versus Full Capacity, American.Economic Review, 46(3): 412-419, June.

  • Aigner, D.J. and S.F. Chu (1968), On Estimation Industrial Production Function, American Economic Review 58(4): 826-839, September.

  • Becker, H. and U. Koester (1975), Special Features of Production in Agricultural Sector as a problem of Agricultural Policy, (Besonderheiten in Productions bereich des Agrasektors Problem de Agrapolitik), Berichte Ube Lanwirtsehft, 53: 583.

  • Biddle, Jeff E. (2010), The Introduction of the Cobb Douglas Regression and its Adoption by Agricultural Economists, Manuscript, Department of Economics, Michigan State University, October.

  • ---------- (2012), The Introduction of the Cobb Douglas Regression, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 26(2): 223-236.

  • Binswanger, H.P. (1974), The Measurement of Technical Change bias with Many Factors of Production, Am.Eco.Reg.,64(6) 964-975, December:.

  • Bliss, C.J. (1975), Capital Theory and the Distribution of Income, Amsterdam: North Holland.

  • Cobb, C.W. and P.H. Douglas (1928), A Theory of Production, American Economic Review, 18(Supplement): 139–165.

  • Cox, D.R. and E.J. Snell (1974), The Choice of Variables in Observational Studies, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series C (Applied Statistics), 23(1): 51-59.

  • Dillon, J.L. (1977), The Analysis of Response in Crop and Livestock Production, Oxford.

  • Doc, I. (1976), Returns to Scale in Farming. Further Evidence, Am, J. Agric, Econ., 58(4, Part 1): 745-749.

  • Felipe, Jesus and F. Gerard Adams (2005), The Estimation of the Cobb-Douglas Function: A Retrospective View, Eastern Economic Journal, 31(3): 427-445.

  • Felipe, Jesus and Franklin M. Fisher (2003), Aggregation in Production Functions: What Should Applied Economists Know?, Metroeconomica, 54(2-3): 208-262, May.

  • Felipe, Jesus and John McCombie (2012), Aggregate Production Functions and the Accounting Identity Critique: Further Reflections on Temple’s Criticisms and Misunderstandings, Working Paper No. 718, Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, Annandale-On-Hudson, NY 12504-5000.

  • Fisher, Franklin M. (1969), The Existence of Aggregate Production Functions, Econometrica, 37(4): 553-577.

  • Georgescu Roegen, Nicholas (1971), Process Analysis and the Neoclassical Theory of Production, Proceedings, Winter meeting of the American Agricultural Economics, New Orleans, December 27-30, 197l.

  • Giannakas, Konstantinos, Kien C. Tran and Vangelis Tzouvelekas (2003), On the Choice of Functional Form in Stochastic Frontier Modelling, Empirical Economics, 28(1): 75–100, January.

  • Glaister, Stephen (1984), Mathematical Methods for Economists, Japanese Edition, 1984.

  • Goldberger, A.S (1968), Topics in Regression Analysis, New York, Macmillan.

  • Gorman, W.M. (1953), Community Preference Field, Econometrica, 21(1): 63-80, January.

  • Griffin, Ronald C., John M. Montgomery, and M. Edward Rister (1987), Selecting Functional Form in Production Function Analysis, Western Journal of Agricultural Economics, 12(2): 216-227.

  • Griliches, Z. and V. Ringstad (1971), Economics of Scale and the Form of Production Function, Amsterdam, North Holland.

  • Hájková, Dana and Jaromír Hurník (2007), Cobb-Douglas Production Function: The Case of a Converging Economy, Czech Journal of Economics and Finance, 57(9-10): 465-476.

  • Hicks, J.R. (1973), Capital and Time, Oxford University of Press.

  • Hopper, W.D. (1966), Allocation Efficiency in Traditional Indian Agriculture, J. Fm, Economics, 47(3): 611-624.

  • Idachaba, F.S. (1973), The Effects as Taxes and Subsidies on Land and Labour Utilization in Nigerian Agriculture, East Lansing, Department. of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University, Rural Employment Paper No. 7, 1973.

  • Leontif, W.W. (1947), A Note on the Interrelation of Subsets of Independent Variables of a Continuous Function with Continuous First Derivatives, Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 53(4): 343-350.

  • Lindbeck, Assar and Jorgen W. Weibull (1988), Altruism and Time Consistency: The Economics of Fait Accompli, Journal of Political Economy, 96(6): 1165-1182.

  • Makowski, Louis and Joseph M Ostroy (1990), The Existence of Perfectly Competitive Equilibrium a la Wicksteed, Working Paper No. 606, UCLA Department of Economics, August 1990.

  • Massel, B.F. and R.W.M. Johnson (1968), Economics of Small Holder Farming in Rhodesia: A Cross Section Analysis of Area, Food, Res, Institute Studies, 8(3): 1-74.

  • Miller, Eric (2008), An Assessment of CES and Cobb-Douglas Production Functions, Working Paper No. 05, June, www.cbo.gov.

  • Nataf, A. (1948), Surla Possibility de Consruction de Certain Macromodeles, Econometrica, 16(3): 232-244, July.

  • Pal, M. and A. Sen Gupta (1999), A Model of FPF with Correlated Error Components: An Application to Indian Agriculture, Sankhya, 61(2): 337-350.

  • Pal, M., C. Neogi and B. Ghosh (1998): Estimation of Frontier Production Function with Errors in Variables: An Illustration from Indian Industry, Quantitative Economics: Theory and Practice, Essays in honour of Professor N. Bhattacharya, (Eds.) S.R. Chakravarty, D. Coondoo and R. Mukherjee, Allied Publishers, New Delhi, pp. 177-203.

  • ---------- (2003), Frontier Production Function and Extreme Observations, Arthaniti, 2(1-2), 42-61.

  • Petit, M. (1976), Relationships among Various Aspects of Agricultural Changes, European Review of Agricultural Economics, 3(2-3): 163-186.

  • Shapiro, K.H. (1977), Efficiency Differentials in Present Agriculture and Their Implications to Development Policies, Sixteenth International Conference of Agricultural Economists, Oxford: Institution of Agricultural Economics.

  • Shi, J.T., L.J. Hushak and N. Rask (1977), The validity of Cobb-Douglas Specification in Taiwan’s Developing Agriculture, Am. J. Agri. Econ, 59(3): 544-558, August.

  • Smith, Adam (1776), The Wealth of Nations, 1st Everyman’s Edition, London: J.M. Dent (1910).

  • Solow, Robert (1957), Technical Change and the Aggregate Production Function, Review of Economics and Statistics, 39(3): 312-320.

  • Temple, Jonathan (2006), Aggregate Production Functions and Growth Economics, International Review of Applied Economics, 20(3): 301-317. Preprinthttp://www.econ.iastate.edu/tesfatsi/AggregProdFunctionsDontExist.Temple.pdf.

  • Timmer, C.P. (1970), On Measuring Technology Efficiency, Food, Res. Inst. Stud, 9, 2: 99-171.

  • Vieth, Northern, Gary R. and Pramote Suppapanya, (1996), An Evaluation of Selected Decision Models: A Case of Crop Choice in Thailand Decision Models, Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, 28(2): 381–391.

  • Yotopoulos, P.A. (1967), From Stock to Floor Capital Inputs for Agricultural Production Functions: A Micro-analytic Approach, Am, J. Agree, Econ, 49(2): 476-491.


Abstract Views: 471

PDF Views: 0




  • Unproductive Production Function:Cobb-Douglas Production Function Revisited

Abstract Views: 471  |  PDF Views: 0

Authors

Pulak Chandra Majumdar
Presidency University, Kolkata 700073, west Bengal, India
Amitava Chatterjee
Department of Economics, Presidency University, Kolkata 700073, West Bengal, India

Abstract


Some major problems associated with production function analysis of survey data are reviewed in this paper in the hope that it will offer impetus to research work. Problems arise in the treatment of capital, aggregation of inputs and outputs, aggregation of functional relationship, specification of the function and statistical estimation. These problems hitherto have not been resolved and doubts remain regarding the validity of farm-level-production function analysis.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.21648/arthavij%2F2016%2Fv58%2Fi1%2F121273