Elasticity of substitution and social conflict: a structuralist note on Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-first Century

Nelson Barbosa-Filho

Cambridge Journal of Economics, 2016, vol. 40, issue 4, 1167-1183

Abstract: This paper presents a structuralist analysis of the elasticity of substitution between capital and labour, with an application to the US economy. The paper shows how the elasticity of substitution is an aggregated residual parameter, as well as how fluctuations of it can be explained in terms of technological, distributive, demographic and demand shocks. Then, based on a 2×2 dynamical model for the wage share of income and the employment rate, the paper analyses Thomas Piketty’s theoretical proposition that the functional distribution of income may not be stationary.

Date: 2016
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