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Piketty's Elasticity of Substitution: A Critique

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Abstract

This note examines Thomas Piketty's (2014) explanation and prediction of simultaneously rising capital income ratio and profit share by an elasticity of substitution, sigma, greater than one between labor and capital in an aggregate production function. I review Piketty's elasticity argument, which relies on a non-standard capital definition. In light of the theory of land rent, I discuss why the non-standard capital definition is problematic for estimating elasticities. For lack of existing results, I make a simple estimate of sigma in the class of constant elasticity of substitution functions for Piketty's data as well as for a subset of his capital measure that comes closer to the standard capital definition. The estimation results cast doubt on Piketty's hypothesis of a sigma greater than one.

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  • Gregor Semieniuk, 2014. "Piketty's Elasticity of Substitution: A Critique," SCEPA working paper series. 2014-8, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.
    • Handle: RePEc:epa:cepawp:2014-9
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    3. Hegelund, Erik & Taalbi, Josef, 2023. "What determines unemployment in the long run? Band spectrum regression on ten countries 1913–2016," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 144-167.
    4. José Gabriel Palma & Joseph E. Stiglitz, 2016. "Do Nations Just Get the Inequality They Deserve? The “Palma Ratio” Re-examined," International Economic Association Series, in: Kaushik Basu & Joseph E. Stiglitz (ed.), Inequality and Growth: Patterns and Policy, chapter 2, pages 35-97, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Jackson, Tim & Victor, Peter A., 2016. "Does slow growth lead to rising inequality? Some theoretical reflections and numerical simulations," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 206-219.
    6. Gechert, Sebastian & Havranek, Tomas & Irsova, Zuzana & Kolcunova, Dominika, 2019. "Death to the Cobb-Douglas Production Function? A Quantitative Survey of the Capital-Labor Substitution Elasticity," EconStor Preprints 203136, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    7. Kumar, Rishabh & Schoder, Christian & Radpour, Siavash, 2018. "Demand driven growth and capital distribution in a two class model with applications to the United States," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 1-8.
    8. Luca Zamparelli, 2017. "Wealth Distribution, Elasticity of Substitution and Piketty: An ‘Anti-Dual’ Pasinetti Economy," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(4), pages 927-946, November.
    9. Marwil Jhonatan Dávila Fernádez & José Luis Oreiro, 2016. "Capital In The Twenty First Century: Reinterpretando A Contradição Fundamental Do Capitalismo," Anais do XLIII Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 43rd Brazilian Economics Meeting] 096, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    10. Michael Knoblach & Fabian Stöckl, 2020. "What Determines The Elasticity Of Substitution Between Capital And Labor? A Literature Review," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(4), pages 847-875, September.
    11. Akaev, Askar & Devezas, Tessaleno & Ichkitidze, Yuri & Sarygulov, Askar, 2021. "Forecasting the labor intensity and labor income share for G7 countries in the digital age," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
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    13. Dong–Min Rieu & Hyun Woong Park, 2018. "Unproductive Activities and the Rate of Surplus Value at the Industry Level in Korea, 1995–2015," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2018-07, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    rent theory; wealth definition; capitalization of land; elasticity of substitution; Piketty;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B12 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Classical (includes Adam Smith)
    • E01 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts
    • E25 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Aggregate Factor Income Distribution

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