Artikel

De genese van de Cobb-Douglas-produktiefunctie

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Abstract

The genesis of the Cobb-Douglas production function - In the last fifteen years, the development of the economic science has been characterized by a shift in interest of a group of economists from the Keynesian analysis to the analysis of production relations; i.e. production functions. However, the production function is no recent phenomenon. In 1896 the Swedish economist Knut Wicksell already introduces in his work Finanz-theoretische Untersuchungen - Darstellung und Kritik des Steuerwesens Schwedens a labour productivity function, which in fact is a disguised production function. In 1916, again Knut Wicksell suggests for the first time an explicit production function in his article „Den ’kritiska punkten’ i lagen för jordbrukets aftagande produktivitet”. Both the disguised function from 1896 and the explicit production function of 1916, are linear homogeneous and power functions of the Cobb-Douglas form. Twelve years after the suggestion of Wicksell the professors C.W. Cobb and P. H. Douglas create the first version of the Cobb-Douglas production function (i.e. linear homogeneous) ignoring the work of Wicksell. When in 1937 David Durand’s suggestion is accepted i.e. to relax the restraint that the sum of the exponents should sum to unity, the resulting power function comes to be known as the famous Cobb-Douglas production function. It becomes evident that the explicit production function is no recent phenomenon. The equation which has come to be known as the Cobb-Douglas function traces back to Wicksell at the end of the 19th century. Only the relative isolation of Wicksell’s work concerning production theory and the more recently developed conception of the now famous Cobb-Douglas production function are responsible for the impression that production functions are recent phenomena.

How to Cite:

Van Den Broeck, J., (1971) “De genese van de Cobb-Douglas-produktiefunctie”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen 16(1), 56–65. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.95877