John R. Moroney

Factor Costs and Factor Use: An Analysis of Labor, Capital, and Natural Resource Inputs

of the United States. The deflator for gross book value of structures in year T, DST, is: T SIt dst DST = T t-=T-n sit t=T-n where Sit is the constant dollar investment in structures undertaken by all manufacturing industries in year t. Given the assumption made above, the resulting deflator will be applicable to all the sample industries. The two components of gross book value cannot be individually deflated because re- ported gross book value is not always dis- aggregated into structures and non- structures. Therefore, a composite deflator is calculated as a weighted average of the non- structures deflator and the structures defla- tor. In each manufacturing industry the weights are the average relative shares of structures and nonstructures in gross book value during the period 1967-1971. The re- sulting figures are used industry by industry to deflate the series on the gross book value of capital assets, forming the constant dollar gross book value series that serve as our measures of capital stocks. B. Derivation of the Natural Resource Prod- uct Input Series The annual outputs of renewable natural resource products are obtained from Agricul- tural Statistics, a statistical yearbook pub- lished by the Department of Agriculture. The dispositions of natural resource product outputs are given for relatively large pur- chasers of these products. These disposition figures permit the imputation of input usage by our sample manufacturing industries. Minerals Yearbook, a publication of the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, is the source for the output of non- renewable natural resource products except petroleum. Crude petroleum production and imports are obtained from the American Pe- troleum Institute, Petroleum Facts and Fig- ures [2]. The end uses of yearly output flows ar published for major purchasers of these nonrenewable resource products. The following lists the natural resource product inputs used by each manufacturing industry. The first three industries process renewable resource products, and the re- maining industries fabricate nonrenewable resource products. NATURAL RESOURCE PRODUCTS INCLUDED IN THE SAMPLE

Energy, capital and technological change in the United States

Abstract During the years 1950–1973, energy and capital were jointly substituted for labor, and real GNP per hour increased at 2.5% annually. Following the energy price shocks of 1973–1974 and 1979–1981, both capital utilization and energy per worker hour fell abruptly. Likewise, the growth in real GNP per hour declined to 1.2%. This paper specifies and estimates aggregate production functions designed to identify the roles of capital-labor substitution, energy-labor substitution, and technological change as sources of labor productivity growth. Declining energy intensity was an important partial cause of the slowdown in productivity growth.

Money Growth, Output Growth, and Inflation: Estimation of a Modern Quantity Theory

This paper develops a long-run version of the quantity theory of money growth, real GDP growth, and inflation. Inflation rates, averaged for the years 1980–1993, are computed for 81 countries. These cross-section inflation rates are explained almost entirely by average M2 growth rates. In countries marked by high money growth and inflation, the estimated coefficients of M2 growth are strikingly close to one, strongly confirming the quantity theory. By contrast, in countries with relatively low money growth and inflation, the estimated money growth coefficient is only 0.69; the quantity theory offers a less complete explanation of inflation. Money growth and GDP growth are nearly orthogonal, consistent with long-run monetary superneutrality. The quantity theory is a reliable model of inflation for most countries, but not for those experiencing slow long-run money growth.

Energy consumption, capital and real output: A comparison of market and planned economies

Abstract This paper investigates the energy intensiveness and the capital intensiveness ofgross domestic products for 17 European market economies and 7 East European economies for the years 1978, 1979, and 1980. Gross domestic products and real capital stocks of all countries are expressed in 1975 U.S. dollars. Energy consumption is likewise measured in internationally comparable units. The Eastern Bloc consumed on average nearly twice as much energy relative to gross domestic product and capital as the market economies. Despite this, aggregate output per worker in the Eastern Bloc averaged only 60% of that in the market economies.

The Sources of Change in Labor's Relative Share: A Neoclassical Analysis

labor has increased in the American economy over the postwar years. However, the apparent increase may not be real. Indeed, several explanations have been advanced to account for the trend, i.e., for the apparent increase but actual constancy of relative shares. First, the government sector has consistently gained in importance over the period. By accounting practice, all the government contribution to national product is regarded as compensation of employees. Hence an increase in the government sector augments both numerator (the national wage bill) and denominator (national income) by the same amount, thus increasing labors relative share. This influence is normally eliminated by concentrating on the private domestic econ2 omy.

Morishima elasticities of substitution with nested production functions

Abstract Nested, multi-stage, production technologies are distinguished by two distinct types of substitution: intraprocess and interprocess. This paper develops Morishima elasticity measures for each, shows the relation between the Morishima and Allen-Uzawa substitution elasticities, and applies the analysis to domestic content protection.

Substitution and complementarity with nested production

Abstract Nested technologies, generated by weakly separable production structures, are pervasive in multi-stage processes. This letter utilizes duality to isolate three distinct effects of price-induced changes in factor demand to analyze substitutability and complementarity; economic implications for domestic content are noted.

The individual investor in the market: Forming a belief regarding market efficiency

Abstract Do the actions of investors drive the market toward efficiency or do investors utilize fads and other information unrelated to the true value of the security to drive the market away from efficiency? Investors have been forced to examine a multitude of challenges to the efficient markets hypothesis in recent years. One of the most formidable of the challenges is the “excessive market price volatility” argument. We examine this argument, as presented in the “variance bounds” literature, and conclude that, although markets may be inefficient, the “variance bounds” literature has not proved the case conclusively.

Are natural resources capital-using: a microanalytic approach

A microanalytic framework is used to test the idea that more capital is used across industries that require large amounts of natural resources. A test is conducted on a representative sample of 104 American manufacturing industries with varying capital-labor ratios and natural resource demand. Model results lead to the conclusions that (1) the capital-use theory is only valid in the most restrictive models; (2) in a more general approach, resources appear capital-using in some sectors but are neutral or labor-intensive in others; (3) the capital intensity of some sectors, such as petroleum, chemicals, and primary metals, may be induced more by high wages than by resource needs; and (4) the capital-using theory is determined not to be a significant factor in American trade, although certain resources may be better suited to capital-intensive development. (DCK)