The Solow residual, a distributional approach: The case of Chile, 1985-2019

The primary goal of this paper is to present a distributive proposal for reinterpreting Solow’s residual and apply it within the Chilean context. We argue that Solow’s residual can only indirectly capture technological phenomena. This critique draws upon the contribution of Felipe and McCombie (202...

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Main Author: Fernando Villanueva Melo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Associazione Economia civile 2024-10-01
Series:PSL Quarterly Review
Subjects:
Online Access:https://rosa.uniroma1.it/rosa04/psl_quarterly_review/article/view/18663
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author Fernando Villanueva Melo
author_facet Fernando Villanueva Melo
author_sort Fernando Villanueva Melo
collection DOAJ
description The primary goal of this paper is to present a distributive proposal for reinterpreting Solow’s residual and apply it within the Chilean context. We argue that Solow’s residual can only indirectly capture technological phenomena. This critique draws upon the contribution of Felipe and McCombie (2020), who contend that production functions merely reflect an identity account. Hence, the so-called Total Factor Productivity (TFP) mirrors the dynamic of real wages and the rate of profit. We adopt a descriptive approach to estimate and decompose the Solow residual growth for the Chilean economy, to discern the origins of distributional changes between 1985 and 2019. A key patterns is that throughout almost the entire period, the dynamic of the Solow residual is closely intertwined with fluctuations in the profit rate. Additionally, we decompose the profit rate to highlight that the decline in the Chilean economy’s profit rate stems from both distributional and technological factors.
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spelling doaj-art-b8d12ae8439c4ea8bf5ba5357c7dcf542025-08-20T01:47:51ZengAssociazione Economia civilePSL Quarterly Review2037-36352037-36432024-10-017731010.13133/2037-3643/18663The Solow residual, a distributional approach: The case of Chile, 1985-2019Fernando Villanueva Melo0National Statistics Institute of Chile (INE) The primary goal of this paper is to present a distributive proposal for reinterpreting Solow’s residual and apply it within the Chilean context. We argue that Solow’s residual can only indirectly capture technological phenomena. This critique draws upon the contribution of Felipe and McCombie (2020), who contend that production functions merely reflect an identity account. Hence, the so-called Total Factor Productivity (TFP) mirrors the dynamic of real wages and the rate of profit. We adopt a descriptive approach to estimate and decompose the Solow residual growth for the Chilean economy, to discern the origins of distributional changes between 1985 and 2019. A key patterns is that throughout almost the entire period, the dynamic of the Solow residual is closely intertwined with fluctuations in the profit rate. Additionally, we decompose the profit rate to highlight that the decline in the Chilean economy’s profit rate stems from both distributional and technological factors. https://rosa.uniroma1.it/rosa04/psl_quarterly_review/article/view/18663Solow residualtotal factor productivityfunctional income distributionwages productivityrate of profitChile
spellingShingle Fernando Villanueva Melo
The Solow residual, a distributional approach: The case of Chile, 1985-2019
PSL Quarterly Review
Solow residual
total factor productivity
functional income distribution
wages productivity
rate of profit
Chile
title The Solow residual, a distributional approach: The case of Chile, 1985-2019
title_full The Solow residual, a distributional approach: The case of Chile, 1985-2019
title_fullStr The Solow residual, a distributional approach: The case of Chile, 1985-2019
title_full_unstemmed The Solow residual, a distributional approach: The case of Chile, 1985-2019
title_short The Solow residual, a distributional approach: The case of Chile, 1985-2019
title_sort solow residual a distributional approach the case of chile 1985 2019
topic Solow residual
total factor productivity
functional income distribution
wages productivity
rate of profit
Chile
url https://rosa.uniroma1.it/rosa04/psl_quarterly_review/article/view/18663
work_keys_str_mv AT fernandovillanuevamelo thesolowresidualadistributionalapproachthecaseofchile19852019
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