IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eneeco/v56y2016icp185-189.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A physical production function for the US economy

Author

Listed:
  • Thompson, Henry

Abstract

This paper introduces and presents an estimate of a production function motivated by physics with labor and energy providing force to produce work. The separate interactions of capital with labor and energy lead to reliable estimates for US output from 1951 to 2008 with fixed capital assets, the labor force, and total Btu energy inputs. Underpaid energy has an output elasticity twice that of labor. Overpaid labor faces elastic own substitution while there is weak substitution for capital. The policy implications of these properties are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Thompson, Henry, 2016. "A physical production function for the US economy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 185-189.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:56:y:2016:i:c:p:185-189
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2016.03.016
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988316300548
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eneco.2016.03.016?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barnett, A. H. & Reutter, Keith & Thompson, Henry, 1998. "Electricity substitution: some local industrial evidence," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 411-419, September.
    2. Urga, Giovanni & Walters, Chris, 2003. "Dynamic translog and linear logit models: a factor demand analysis of interfuel substitution in US industrial energy demand," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 1-21, January.
    3. Caloghirou, Yannis D. & Mourelatos, Alexi G. & Thompson, Henry, 1997. "Industrial energy substitution during the 1980s in the Greek economy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 476-491, October.
    4. Griffin, James M & Gregory, Paul R, 1976. "An Intercountry Translog Model of Energy Substitution Responses," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(5), pages 845-857, December.
    5. Kemfert, Claudia, 1998. "Estimated substitution elasticities of a nested CES production function approach for Germany," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 249-264, June.
    6. Engle, Robert & Granger, Clive, 2015. "Co-integration and error correction: Representation, estimation, and testing," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 39(3), pages 106-135.
    7. Thompson, Henry, 2006. "The applied theory of energy substitution in production," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 410-425, July.
    8. Christensen, Laurits R & Jorgenson, Dale W & Lau, Lawrence J, 1973. "Transcendental Logarithmic Production Frontiers," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 55(1), pages 28-45, February.
    9. Berndt, Ernst R & Wood, David O, 1975. "Technology, Prices, and the Derived Demand for Energy," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 57(3), pages 259-268, August.
    10. Ernst R. Berndt & Laurits R. Christensen, 1973. "The Internal Structure of Functional Relationships: Separability, Substitution, and Aggregation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 40(3), pages 403-410.
    11. Thompson, Henry, 2014. "An energy factor proportions model of the US economy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 1-5.
    12. Field, Barry C & Grebenstein, Charles, 1980. "Capital-Energy Substitution in U.S. Manufacturing," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 62(2), pages 207-212, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Martin de Wit & Matthew Kuperus Heun & Douglas J Crookes, 2013. "An overview of salient factors, relationships and values to support integrated energy-economic systems dynamic modelling," Working Papers 02/2013, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    2. Cheng Maolin & Shi Guojun & Han Yun, 2019. "A Modified CES Production Function Model and Its Application in Calculating the Contribution Rate of Energy and Other Influencing Factors to Economic Growth," Journal of Systems Science and Information, De Gruyter, vol. 7(2), pages 161-172, April.
    3. Sergey Baranov & Tatiana Skufina & Vera Samarina, 2023. "Influence of Underutilization of Production Capacities on the Dynamics of Russian GDP: An Assessment on the Basis of Production Functions," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-10, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Thompson, Henry, 2006. "The applied theory of energy substitution in production," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 410-425, July.
    2. He, Yongda & Lin, Boqiang, 2019. "Heterogeneity and asymmetric effects in energy resources allocation of the manufacturing sectors in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 1019-1035.
    3. Koetse, Mark J. & de Groot, Henri L.F. & Florax, Raymond J.G.M., 2008. "Capital-energy substitution and shifts in factor demand: A meta-analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 2236-2251, September.
    4. Kim, Jihyo & Heo, Eunnyeong, 2013. "Asymmetric substitutability between energy and capital: Evidence from the manufacturing sectors in 10 OECD countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 81-89.
    5. Thompson, Alexi, 2013. "An almost ideal supply system estimate of US energy substitution," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 813-818.
    6. Yazid Dissou & Reza Ghazal, 2010. "Energy Substitutability in Canadian Manufacturing Econometric Estimation with Bootstrap Confidence Intervals," The Energy Journal, , vol. 31(1), pages 121-148, January.
    7. Haller, Stefanie A. & Hyland, Marie, 2014. "Capital–energy substitution: Evidence from a panel of Irish manufacturing firms," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 501-510.
    8. Steve Sorrell, 2014. "Energy Substitution, Technical Change and Rebound Effects," Energies, MDPI, vol. 7(5), pages 1-24, April.
    9. Hepburn, Cameron & Teytelboym, Alexander & Cohen, Francois, 2018. "Is Natural Capital Really Substitutable?," INET Oxford Working Papers 2018-12, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.
    10. Bello, Mufutau Opeyemi & Solarin, Sakiru Adebola & Yen, Yuen Yee, 2018. "Hydropower and potential for interfuel substitution: The case of electricity sector in Malaysia," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 966-983.
    11. Lila J. Truett & Dale B. Truett, 2011. "Whither Germany and the EMU In a Challenging Environment?," Working Papers 0019, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio.
    12. Truett, Dale B. & Truett, Lila J., 1996. "Trade liberalization and the Mexican steel industry," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 5(4), pages 429-447.
    13. Zha, Donglan & Ding, Ning, 2015. "Threshold characteristic of energy efficiency on substitution between energy and non-energy factors," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 180-187.
    14. Valeria Costantini & Elena Paglialunga, 2014. "Elasticity of substitution in capital-energy relationships: how central is a sector-based panel estimation approach?," SEEDS Working Papers 1314, SEEDS, Sustainability Environmental Economics and Dynamics Studies, revised May 2014.
    15. Lagomarsino, Elena, 2020. "Estimating elasticities of substitution with nested CES production functions: Where do we stand?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    16. Valeria Costantini & Francesco Crespi & Elena Paglialunga, 2019. "Capital–energy substitutability in manufacturing sectors: methodological and policy implications," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 9(2), pages 157-182, June.
    17. Khayyat, Nabaz T. & Heshmati, Almas, 2014. "Production Risk, Energy Use Efficiency and Productivity of Korean Industries," IZA Discussion Papers 8081, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Roos K. Andadari & Henri L.F. de Groot & Piet Rietveld, 2012. "Production Externalities in the Wood Furniture Industry in Central Java," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 12-072/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    19. Christopoulos, Dimitris K. & Tsionas, Efthymios G., 2002. "Allocative inefficiency and the capital-energy controversy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 305-318, July.
    20. Dargay, Joyce M., 1980. "The Demand for Energy in Swedish Manufacturing," Working Paper Series 33, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, revised Aug 1982.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Macroeconomic production; Substitution; Energy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O4 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity
    • Q4 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:56:y:2016:i:c:p:185-189. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eneco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.