Economic analysis of production structure, technological change, and productivity growth for the United States food and kindred products sector.

摘要

Scope and methods of study. This study analyzes production structure, technological change behavior, factor substitution, and impact of R&D and autonomous technical change on factor demand, particularly labor, in the food processing industries. The translog cost function was used to represent the production technology and augmented input prices were considered for quality changes in inputs for the two and three digit industries. A system of equations was estimated comprised of the translog cost function and cost shares using annual national time series data from 1958--94. At the two digit level, R&D was included as a fixed factor to separate its potential cost savings from autonomous technical change. Parameter estimates from the translog cost function were used to calculate elasticities, and to decompose output growth, labor productivity growth, and total factor productivity growth.;Findings and conclusions. Extensive scale economies were found and thus potential cost savings but results varied across the three digit industries. Substantial technical/structural change, cost savings, and input composition adaptations were found and suggest that these results were due more from technical change embodied in R&D capital than from autonomous technical change. Technological change has been materials plus energy using and capital and labor neutral. The degree of substitution of materials plus energy for labor/capital was stronger than substituting labor/capital for materials plus energy. The degree of substitution of capital for labor was stronger than substituting labor for capital. R&D was the important source of inducement in increasing labor and materials plus energy use in the short-run, but was substitutable with respect to capital. However, autonomous technical change played an important role of inducement in increasing factor demand in both short and long run even if its impact was smaller than R&D in the short run. The major sources of output and labor productivity were found to be materials plus energy, some college and college degree labor, and physical capital. The source of total factor productivity growth was mainly from technical change (direct and indirect) but was slowed/declined because of increased factor prices and stagnant/decline in exogenous demand.