We propose a transactions cost theory of total factor productivity (TFP). In a world with asymmetric information and transactions costs, productivity must be induced by incentive schemes. Labor contracts trade off marginal benefits and costs of effort. The latter include, in addition to the...

Trade is sequential: buyers arrive in batches and each batch completes trade before the next arrives. Producers allocate the available supply among all potential batches of buyers. Inventories accumulate whenever a batch does not arrive. Shocks to cost and demand are serially independent. There...

This note demonstrates that it is still possible to identify the economy's technology from national income accounting data when wages are set through a bargaining process rather than the usual competitive mechanism. Applying the method to US data, we obtain that the output elasticity with...

This note demonstrates that it is easily possible to compute technological parameters out of national income accounting data in the presence of bargaining in the labor market. Applying the method to US data, we obtain that the output elasticity with respect to capital exceed 0.5.