Bifurcations in a Reswitching Example

Figure 1: Rates of Profits for Switch Points in One Dimension in Parameter Space

1.0 Introduction

This post presents an example of structural variation in the qualitative behavior of a reswitching example, at different values for selected parameters. I know of few applications of bifurcation analysis to the Cambridge Capital Controversy. Most prominently, I think of Rosser (1983). I suppose I could also point to some of my draft papers. Although not presented this way, one could read Laibman and Nell (1977) as a bifurcation analysis, where the steady state rate of growth is the parameter being varied.

I guess one could read this post as a response to the empirical results in Han and Schefold (2006). Schefold has been developing a theoretical explanation, based on random matrices, of why capital-theoretic paradoxes might be empirically rare. I seem to have stumbled on an explanation of why such paradoxes might arise in practice, and yet might not be observable without more data. To fully address recent results from Schefold, on reswitching and random matrices, one should analyze the spectra of Leontief input-output matrices, which I do not do here.

2.0 Technology

Suppose two commodities, iron and corn, are produced in the economy in the numerical example. As shown in Table 1, two processes are known for producing iron, and one corn-producing process is known. Each column lists the inputs, in physical units, needed to produce one physical unit of the output for the industry for that column. All processes exhibit Constant Returns to Scale, and all processes require services of inputs over a year to produce output of a single commodity available at the end of the year. This is an example of a model of circulating capital. Nothing remains at the end of the year of the capital goods whose services are used by firms during the production processes.

Table 1: The Technology for a Two-Industry Model

Input	Iron Industry		Corn Industry
Labor	1	305/494	a0,2
Iron	1/10	229/494	a1,2
Corn	1/40	3/1976	2/5

Assume a_0,2 is non-negative, and that a_1,2 is strictly positive. For the economy to be self-reproducing, both iron and corn must be produced each year. Two techniques of production are available. The Alpha technique consists of the first iron-producing process and the lone corn-producing process. The Beta technique consists of the remaining iron-producing process and the corn-producing process.

3.0 Choice of Technique

Managers of firms choose the technique to adopt based on cost-minimization. I take a bushel of corn as the numeraire. Assume that labor is advanced, and that wages are paid out of the surplus at the end of the year. For this post, I do not bother setting out equations for prices of production; I have done that many times in the past.

3.1 Reswitching for one Set of Parameter Values

Figure 2 illustrates that this is a reswitching example. This figure is drawn for the following values of the labor coefficient in the process for producing corn:

a_0,2 = 1

The coefficient of production for iron in corn-production, in drawing Figure 2, is set to the following value:

a_1,2 = 2

The economy exhibits capital-reversing around the switch point at an 80% rate of profits.

Figure 2: Wage-Rate of Profits Curves

3.2 Bifurcations with Variations in a Labor Coefficient

Wage-rate of profits curves are drawn for given coefficients of production. And they will be moved elsewhere for different levels of coefficients of production. Consequently, the existence and location of switch points differ, depending on the values for coefficients of production.

Accordingly, suppose all coefficients of production, except a_0,2, are as in the above reswitching example. Consider values of the labor coefficient for corn-production ranging from zero to three. The labor coefficient is plotted along the abscissa in Figure 3. The points on the blue locus in the figure show the rate of profits for the switch points, as a correspondence for the labor coefficient. The maximum rates of profits for the Alpha and Beta techniques are also graphed.

Figure 3: Rates of Profits for Switch Points as One Labor Coefficient Decreases

Figure 3 shows a structural change in the example. Up to a value of a_0,2 of approximately 2.74, this is a reswitching example. For parameter values strictly greater than that, no switch points exist. The maximum rates of profits for the two techniques are constant in Figure 3. The maximum rates of profits are found for a wage of zero, and they do not vary with the labor coefficient. In some sense, only the maximum rate of profits for the Beta technique is relevant in the figure.

3.3 Bifurcations with Variations in a Coefficient of Production for Iron

Figure 1, at the top of this post, also shows structural changes. The coefficient of production for iron in corn-production varies in the figure. a_1,2 ranges from one to three. The other coefficients of production are as in the reswitching example in Section 3.1 above. And the blue locus shows the rate of profits at switch points.

The example can seen to have structural variations here, also, with three distinct regions for a_1,2, with the same qualitative behavior in each region. For a low enough value of the coefficient of production under consideration, only one switch point exists. The model remains a reswitching example for an intermediate range of this parameter. And for values of this coefficient of production strictly greater than approximately 2.53, the Beta technique is cost-minimizing for all feasible wages and rates of profits.

The maximum rates of profits, for the Alpha and Beta techniques, are also graphed in Figure 1.

4.0 A Story of Technological Process

Using the above example, one can tell a story of technological progress. Suppose at the start of the story, corn production requires a relatively large input of direct labor and iron, per (gross) unit corn produced. Prices of production associated with this technology are such that only one technique is cost-minimizing. For all feasible wages and rates of profits, firms will want to adopt the Beta technique.

Suppose iron production is relatively stagnant, as compared to corn-production. Innovation in the corn industry reduces the labor and iron coefficients defining the single dominant corn-producing process. After some time, either or both coefficients will be reduced enough that the technology for this economy will have become a reswitching example. And around the switch point at the lower wage (and higher rate of profits), a higher wage is associated with the cost-minimizing technique requiring more labor to be hired, in the overall economy, per given bushel of corn produced (net).

But technological innovation continues to proceed apace. At a even lower coefficient of production for the iron input in the corn industry, the structural behavior of the economy changes again. Now a single switch point exists. And the results of the choice of technique around that switch point conforms to outdated neoclassical intuition.

5.0 Conclusion

This example has two properties that I think worth emphasizing.

The choice of technique in the example corresponds to a choice of a production process in the iron industry. As I have told the story, the technology is fixed in iron production. Innovation occurs in corn production. Thus, innovation in one industry can change the dynamics in another industry.

Second, suppose the technology is observed at a single point of time. Suppose the economy is more or less stationary, and that observation is taken at either the start or the end of the above story. Then neither reswitching nor capital reversing will be observed. Yet such phenomena might arise in the future or have arisen in the past.

References

• David Laibman and Edward J. Nell (1977). Reswitching, Wicksell effects, and the neoclassical production function. American Economic Review. 67 (5): pp. 878-888.
• Zonghie Han and Bertram Schefold (2006). An empirical investigation of paradoxes: reswitching and reverse capital deepening in capital theory. Cambridge Journal of Economics. 30 (5): pp. 737-765.
• J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. (1983). "Reswitching as a cusp catastrophe", Journal of Economic Theory. 31: pp. 182-193.
• Bertram Schefold (2013). Approximate surrogate production functions, Cambridge Journal of Economics. 37 (5): pp. 1161-1184.
• Bertram Schefold (2016). Profits equal surplus value on average and the significance of this result for the Marxian theory of accumulation: Being a new contribution to Engels' Prize Essay Competition, based on random matrices and on manuscripts recently published in the MEGA for the first time. Cambridge Journal of Economics. 40 (1): pp. 165-199.