This paper offers an approach based on the economic theory of index numbers that revisits the classical surplus accounting technique. We measure the productivity gains and the combined effects of output and input price variation on French farmers’ income between 1959 and 2011, for the whole...

What is the impact of international migration on the wage structure? Empirically, it is difficult to find any effect at all. This essay gives a new theoretical explanation for this conspicuous absence, emphasising non-convexities in the technology of individual firms due to communication costs....

The inter-industry diversity in productivity increase stimulated many studies on the industrial sources of economic growth. Much less efforts have been devoted to the study of the industrial sources of real income increase. Albeit from the standpoint of the economic system these aspects are two...

We consider a model of production with a continuum of linear techniques and examine the related choice of technique and shape of the demand for capital schedule. The primary conclusion regards the possibility of a decreasing demand for capital schedule combined with reswitching and reverse...

The duality between a production function and the cost function generated by it implies that a Solovian ‘growth accounting’ measure of productivity increase, as referred to the industry, has an equivalent dual measure, based on what may be called ‘price accounting’. It is argued in this...

This paper presents results of a meta-regression analysis on empirical estimates of capital-energy substitution. Theoretically it is clear that a distinction should be made between Morishima substitution elasticities and cross-price elasticities. The former represent purely technical...

We show that the Hotelling-Lau elasticity of substitution, an extension of the Allen-Uzawa elasticity to allow for optimal output-quantity (or utility) responses to changes in factor prices, inherits all of the failings of the Allen-Uzawa elasticity identified by Blackorby and Russell [1989...

This paper suggests that the difference in the Theil indices of inequality between two economies approximately measures the relative loss of aggregate productivity caused by distortions in labor allocation. Moreover, the Theil index itself can be interpreted approximately as the possible maximum...

This paper offers a quantitative evaluation of the distribution of the welfare of a water privatization experience in Mali among the key economic agents. The assessment is based on an index number inspired by Bennet (1920). The main results are as follows. First, taxpayers are the main losers as...

Tastes and technology are the ultimate givens of standard economics. Their interaction is mediated by the marginal principle. This approach is unsuitable to explain the nature and magnitude of overall profits and their distribution within the business sector. The present paper therefore takes a...