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School of Economics and Finance

No. 704: The Measurement of Labour Content: A General Approach

Naoki Yoshihara , Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo
Roberto Veneziani , Queen Mary, University of London

June 1, 2013

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Abstract

This paper analyses the theoretical issues related to the measurement of labour content in the context of general technologies with heterogeneous labour. A novel axiomatic framework is used in order to formulate the key properties of the notion of labour content and analyse its theoretical foundations. Then, a simple measure of labour content is uniquely characterised, which is consistent with common practice in input-output analysis and with a number of recent approaches in value theory.

J.E.L classification codes: D57, J24, O33, D46

Keywords:Labour content, Labour productivity, Technical change, Axiomatic analysis

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