The Cobb-Douglas regression, a statistical technique developed to estimate what economists called a 'production function', was introduced in the late 1920s. For several years, only economist Paul Douglas and a few collaborators used the technique, while vigorously defending it against numerous...

This chapter argues that modern readers can benefit from studying the classics today, because the classical approach to studying an economic system in motion under a cumulative process of division of labour offers a superior starting point for analysing salient properties of capitalist market...