EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

The Classification of Inventions

Joan Robinson

Chapter 6 in Readings in the Theory of Growth, 1971, pp 48-52 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract In a discussion of the effect of changes in technique upon the position of long-period equilibrium, in my Essays in the Theory of Enaploynrent,1 I made use of Mr. Hicks’s classification of inventions, according to which an invention is said to be neutral when it raises the marginal productivities of labour and capital in the same proportion, and is said to be labour-saving or capital-saving according as it raises the marginal productivity of capital more or less than that of labour, the amounts of the factors being unchanged. I analysed the effect of an invention upon the relative shares of the factors in the total product, when the amount of capital is adjusted to the new technique (so that full equilibrium is attained, with zero investment), in terms of this classification of inventions and the elasticity of substitution, showing that, with a constant rate of interest, the relative shares are unchanged, in equilibrium, by an invention which is neutral in Mr. Hicks’s sense provided that the elasticity of substitution is equal to unity, while if an invention is labour-saving or capital-saving in Mr. Hicks’s sense, the relative shares are unchanged (in equilibrium, with a constant rate of interest) if the elasticity of substitution is correspondingly less or greater than unity.

Keywords: Marginal Productivity; Capital Good; Productivity Curve; Relative Share; Realistic Interpretation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1971
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-15430-2_6

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9781349154302

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-15430-2_6

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().

 
Page updated 2025-04-01
Handle: RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-15430-2_6