On the typology of technological changes in a linear production model

Abstract

This paper considers a linear no-joint production model with heterogeneous labour, endogenised in the manner of Morgenstern and Thompson (1976). It aims at i) showing that the condition of Okishio and Roemer for the productiveness of a technological change is locally necessary; ii) to study the effect of a technological change in the purchasing power of wages and iii) propose a new classification of technological changes that is able to account for the effects on employment of substitution between inputs. As a byproduct, one derives a new proof of the general non-holding of the marxian conjecture of the "falling rate of profit" and its independence of the "reserve army".