Abstract
We assess how the properties of technology affect structural transformation, i.e., the reallocation of production factors across the broad sectors of agriculture, manufacturing, and services. To this end, we estimate sectoral constant elasticity of substitution (CES) and Cobb-Douglas production functions on postwar US data. We find that differences in technical progress across the three sectors are the dominant force behind structural transformation whereas other differences across sectoral technology are of secondorder importance. Our findings imply that Cobb-Douglas sectoral production functions that differ only in technical progress capture the main technological forces behind the postwar US structural transformation.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 104-133 |
Number of pages | 30 |
Journal | American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics |
Volume | 7 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2015 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Economics, Econometrics and Finance(all)
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Replication data for: Sectoral Technology and Structural Transformation
Herrendorf, B. (Creator), Herrington, C. (Creator) & Valentinyi, Á. (Creator), ICPSR, 2015
DOI: 10.3886/e114062v1, https://www.openicpsr.org/openicpsr/project/114062/version/V1/view
Dataset
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Replication data for: Sectoral Technology and Structural Transformation
Herrendorf, B. (Creator), Herrington, C. (Creator) & Valentinyi, Á. (Creator), ICPSR - Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research, 2015
DOI: 10.3886/e114062, https://www.openicpsr.org/openicpsr/project/114062
Dataset