Raw Materials, Profits, and the Productivity Slowdown (Rev) / Michael Bruno.

By:

Bruno, Michael

Contributor(s):

National Bureau of Economic Research

Material type: Text

TextSeries: Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) ; no. w0660.Publication details: Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 1981.Description: 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white)Online resources:

Available additional physical forms:

Hardcopy version available to institutional subscribers

Abstract: A factor-price frontier framework is used to clarify the analogy of an increase (decrease) in raw material prices with that of autonomous technological regress (progress). Factor-price profiles estimated for the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan bring out the major role of raw materials in the profit and product wage squeeze after 1972, with some differences between countries. The production model, in conjunction with estimates obtained from the factor-price frontier, attributes almost all the slowdown in total productivity to the rise in relative raw material prices. It is also shown that part of the apparent productivity riddle has to do with the common use of double-deflated national accounting measures of value added, which have an inherent measurement bias.

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Item type	Home library	Collection	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Working Paper	Biblioteca Digital	Colección NBER	nber w0660 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Not For Loan

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April 1981.

A factor-price frontier framework is used to clarify the analogy of an increase (decrease) in raw material prices with that of autonomous technological regress (progress). Factor-price profiles estimated for the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan bring out the major role of raw materials in the profit and product wage squeeze after 1972, with some differences between countries. The production model, in conjunction with estimates obtained from the factor-price frontier, attributes almost all the slowdown in total productivity to the rise in relative raw material prices. It is also shown that part of the apparent productivity riddle has to do with the common use of double-deflated national accounting measures of value added, which have an inherent measurement bias.