Using a normalized CES function with factor-augmenting technical progress, we estimate a supply-side system of the US economy from 1953 to 1998. Avoiding potential estimation biases that have occurred in earlier studies and putting a high emphasis on the consistency of the data set, required by...

Revised productivity accounts recently released by Statistics Canada are used to estimate a Klump-McAdam-Willman normalized CES supply-side system for the half-century 1961–2010. The model permits distinct rates of factor-augmenting technical change for capital and labour that distinguish...

This paper presents a theory of how factor income shares are determined in an environment with labor market frictions and heterogeneous firms. I assume neither a specific aggregate production function nor competitive factor markets. Instead, I first develop microfoundations for an aggregate...

I review the literature on labor's share of national income in developed and developing countries. These shares have varied systematically over the post-World War II period, rising until the late 1970s and then falling until now. Explanations for the decline in labor's share include technical...

The stability of factor shares has long been considered one of the “stylized facts” of macroeconomics. Most factor share studies, however, acknowledge only two factors of production (total capital and total labor), which yields misleading results. I distinguish between reproducible and...

I present new estimates of the elasticity of substitution between capital and labor using data from the private sector of the U.S. economy for the period 1948-1998. I first adopt Berndt's (1976) specification, which assumes that technological change is Hicks neutral. Consistently with his...

The forest products sector in Canada has faced hard times since 2000. In terms of productivity growth, the sector as a whole has performed poorly relative to the total-economy average. Labour productivity in the sector grew by 0.38 per cent per year between 2000 and 2007, below the economy-wide...

The 2000-2012 period was a difficult time for the Canadian forest products sector. Yet despite an unfavourable environment the sector experienced an above-average productivity performance, driven in particular by the wood product manufacturing subsector. While the forestry and logging subsector...

The Canadian forest products sector has had an above-average productivity performance in the 2000-2012 period, driven in particular by the wood product manufacturing subsector. While the forestry and logging subsector has also benefited from strong productivity gains, the productivity...

Despite ubiquitous discussions of robots' potential impact, there is almost no systematic empirical evidence on their economic effects. In this paper we analyze for the first time the economic impact of industrial robots, using new data on a panel of industries in 17 countries from 1993-2007. We...