Kaldor’s ‘technical progress function’ and Verdoorn’s law revisited
重新审视卡尔多的技术进步函数和韦尔多恩定律,指出两者可从柯布-道格拉斯生产函数推导,但加总问题和剑桥资本争论表明总量生产函数可能不存在,估计结果良好只因会计恒等式,不过韦尔多恩定律的估计仍能提供类似卡尔多的增长洞见。
Kaldor put forward his technical progress function as an alternative to the neoclassical aggregate production function. It is shown that Verdoorn’s law is its empirical counterpart, although allowing for increasing returns to scale. However, both may be derived from an aggregate Cobb-Douglas production function. But aggregation problems and the Cambridge capital theory controversies have shown theoretically that aggregate production functions in all probability do not exist. Moreover, the only reason that estimations of ‘aggregate production functions’ give good results is the existence of an accounting identity. This article reconsiders the technical progress function and Verdoorn’s law, especially in the light of these problems. Nevertheless, it is shown that estimates of the law do, in fact, provide insights into the growth process very similar to those of Kaldor, but viewed from another perspective.