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.

Tags from this library: No tags from this library for this title. Log in to add tags.

Average rating: 0.0 (0 votes)

Holdings
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

Total holds: 0

Collection: Colección NBER Close shelf browser (Hides shelf browser)

Previous	No cover image available	No cover image available	No cover image available	No cover image available	No cover image available	No cover image available	No cover image available	Next
Previous	nber w0657 Housing Behavior and the Experimental Housing Allowance Program: What Have We Learned? /	nber w0658 Real Exchange Rate Adjustment and the Welfare Effects of Oil Price Decontrol /	nber w0659 The Effect of Social Security on Retirement in the Early 1970s /	nber w0660 Raw Materials, Profits, and the Productivity Slowdown (Rev) /	nber w0661 Taxation and Corporate Pension Policy /	nber w0662 Suit and Settlement vs. Trial: A Theoretical Analysis under Alternative Methods for the Allocation of Legal Costs /	nber w0663 Distributional Implications of Imperfect Capital Markets /	Next

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.