Differences and Connections Between Individual (Leontief Type) Activities and Aggregate (Cobb-Douglas Type) Results

Abstract

Each production establishment is assumed to have, at any given time, a unique combination of capital and labor (a Leontief function), but the aggregate output at that same time must still be modeled with a Cobb-Douglas function (or a CES, although the latter yields less efficiency). This has two implications: 1) the total factor productivity variable of the macroeconomic function is endogenous: It depends primarily on the technical factors of the individual establishments and, secondarily, on their levels of capital and labor.; 2) the optimization processes of any establishment cannot be instantaneous, even in the absence of (monetary) adjustment costs; they are processes occurring over several time stages and depending on expectations. However, these implications do not substantially contradict what would correspond to the optimization of a hypothetical firm described by a Cobb-Douglas (or CES) function.