Publications

8 publications found, searching for 'John McCombie '

• Working Paper No. 1046 March 07, 2024

  The Aggregate Production Function and Solow’s “Three Denials”

  Jesus Felipe, and John McCombie
  Abstract

  This paper offers a retrospective view of the key pillar of Solow’s neoclassical growth model, namely the aggregate production function. We review how this tool came to life and how it has survived until today, despite three criticisms that undermined its raison d’être. They are the Cambridge Capital Theory Controversies, the Aggregation Problem, and the […]

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• Working Paper No. 1036 January 05, 2024

  The Estimation of Production Functions with Monetary Values

  Jesus Felipe, John McCombie, and Aashish Mehta
  Abstract

  For decades, the literature on the estimation of production functions has focused on the elimination of endogeneity biases through different estimation procedures to obtain the correct factor elasticities and other relevant parameters. Theoretical discussions of the problem correctly assume that production functions are relationships among physical inputs and output. However, in practice, they are most […]

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• Working Paper No. 1029 September 07, 2023

  Is Anything Left of the Debate about the Sources of Growth in East Asia Thirty Years Later?

  Jesus Felipe, and John McCombie
  Abstract

  The year 2023 commemorates the 30th anniversary of the publication of the influential, yet controversial, study The East Asian Miracle report by the World Bank (1993). An important part of the report’s analysis was concerned with the sources of growth in East Asia. This was based on the neoclassical decomposition of growth into productivity and […]

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• Working Paper No. 994 October 26, 2021

  Production Function Estimation

  Jesus Felipe, Donna Faye Bajaro, John McCombie, and Aashish Mehta
  Abstract

  The possible endogeneity of labor and capital in production functions, and the consequent bias of the estimated elasticities, has been discussed and addressed in the literature in different ways since the 1940s. This paper revisits an argument first outlined in the 1950s, which questioned production function estimations. This argument is that output, capital, and employment […]

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• Working Paper No. 946 February 03, 2020

  The Relationship between Technical Progress and Employment

  Jesus Felipe, Gemma Estrada, Donna Faye Bajaro, and John McCombie
  Abstract

  We show that Autor and Salomons’ (2017, 2018) analysis of the impact of technical progress on employment growth is problematic. When they use labor productivity growth as a proxy for technical progress, their regressions are quasi-accounting identities that omit one variable of the identity. Consequently, the coefficient of labor productivity growth suffers from omitted-variable bias, […]

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• Working Paper No. 725 May 17, 2012

  Problems with Regional Production Functions and Estimates of Agglomeration Economies

  Jesus Felipe, and John McCombie
  Abstract

  Over the last 20 years or so, mainstream economists have become more interested in spatial economics and have introduced largely neoclassical economic concepts and tools to explain phenomena that were previously the preserve of economic geographers. One of these concepts is the aggregate production function, which is also central to much of regional growth theory. […]

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• Working Paper No. 718 May 04, 2012

  Aggregate Production Functions and the Accounting Identity Critique

  Jesus Felipe, and John McCombie
  Abstract

  In a reply to Felipe and McCombie (2010a), Temple (2010) has largely ignored the main arguments that underlie the accounting identity critique of the estimation of production functions using value data. This criticism suggests that estimates of the parameters of aggregate production functions cannot be regarded as reflecting the underlying technology of the industry. While […]

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• Working Paper No. 643 December 07, 2010

  Modeling Technological Progress and Investment in China

  Jesus Felipe, and John McCombie
  Abstract

  Since the early 1990s, the number of papers estimating econometric models and using other quantitative techniques to try to understand different aspects of the Chinese economy has mushroomed. A common feature of some of these studies is the use of neoclassical theory as the underpinning for the empirical implementations. It is often assumed that factor […]

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