The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics

Living Edition
| Editors: Palgrave Macmillan

Production Functions

  • Dale W. Jorgenson
Living reference work entry

Later version available View entry history

First Online:
Received:
Accepted:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_1895-1
How to cite

Abstract

The economic theory of production – as presented in such classic treatises as Hicks’s Value and Capital (1946) and Samuelson’s Foundations of Economic Analysis (1983) – is based on the maximization of profit, subject to a production function. The objective of this theory is to characterize demand and supply functions, using only the restrictions on producer behaviour that arise from optimization. The principal analytical tool employed for this purpose is the implicit function theorem.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

Bibliography

  1. Arrow, K.J., H.B. Chenery, B.S. Minhas, and R.M. Solow. 1961. Capital–labor substitution and economic efficiency. Review of Economics and Statistics 63(3): 225–247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  2. Christensen, L.R., D.W. Jorgenson, and L.J. Lau. 1971. Conjugate duality and the transcendental logarithmic production function. Econometrica 39(3): 255–256.Google Scholar
  3. Christensen, L.R., D.W. Jorgenson, and L.J. Lau. 1973. Transcendental logarithmic production frontiers. Review of Economics and Statistics 55(1): 28–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  4. Cobb, C.W., and P.H. Douglas. 1928. A theory of production. American Economic Review 18(2): 139–165.Google Scholar
  5. Douglas, P.H. 1948. Are there laws of production? American Economic Review 38(1): 1–41.Google Scholar
  6. Douglas, P.H. 1967. Comments on the Cobb–Douglas production function. In The theory and empirical analysis of production, ed. M. Brown, 15–22. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
  7. Douglas, P.H. 1976. The Cobb–Douglas production function once again: Its history, its testing, and some empirical values. Journal of Political Economy 84(5): 903–916.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  8. Frisch, R. 1965. Theory of production. Chicago: Rand McNally. (English translation from the 9th edn of lectures published in Norwegian; the 1st edn of the lectures dates from 1926.).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. Hicks, J.R. 1946. Value and capital, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  10. Hicks, J.R. 1963. The theory of wages, 2nd ed. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  11. Hotelling, H.S. 1932. Edgeworth’s taxation paradox and the nature of demand and supply functions. Journal of Political Economy 40(5): 577–616.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. Jorgenson, D.W. 1983. Modeling production for general equilibrium analysis. Scandinavian Journal of Economics 85(2): 101–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  13. Jorgenson, D.W. 1986. Econometric methods for modeling producer behavior. In Handbook of econometrics, vol. 3, ed. Z. Griliches and M.D. Intriligator. Amsterdam: North-Holland.Google Scholar
  14. McFadden, D. 1963. Further results on CES production functions. Review of Economic Studies 30(2): 73–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  15. Samuelson, P.A. 1953–4. Prices of factors and goods in general equilibrium. Review of Economic Studies 21(1): 1–20.Google Scholar
  16. Samuelson, P.A. 1960. Structure of a minimum equilibrium system. In Essays in economics and econometrics, ed. R.W. Pfouts, 1–33. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
  17. Samuelson, P.A. 1973. Relative shares and elasticities simplified: Comment. American Economic Review 63(4): 770–771.Google Scholar
  18. Samuelson, P.A. 1983. Foundations of economic analysis, 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
  19. Shephard, R.W. 1953. Cost and production functions. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
  20. Shephard, R.W. 1970. Theory of cost and production functions. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
  21. Uzawa, H. 1962. Production functions with constant elasticity of substitution. Review of Economic Studies 29(4): 291–299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© The Author(s) 1987

Authors and Affiliations

  • Dale W. Jorgenson
    • 1
  1. 1.