Technical Change and Triple-Switching in the Corn-Tractor Model

I have another working paper, Technical change and triple-switching in the corn-tractor model, at the Centro Sraffa. The abstract follows.

Abstract: With triple-switching, each of two techniques are cost-minimizing in two disjoint intervals of the wage or rate of profits. Technology that supports multiple switch points between two techniques can only be a temporary phenomenon, as one technique supplants another with technical progress. A perturbation analysis of a triple-switching example in the corn-tractor model illustrates this claim. A parameter space, defined by two selected coefficients of production, is partitioned by loci corresponding to fluke switch points. The analysis of the choice of technique does not qualitatively vary within each of the resulting regions. Technical progress corresponds to specific trajectories through this parameter space.

Keywords: Cambridge Capital Controversy; Fixed Capital; Reswitching of techniques

JEL Codes: B51: Sraffian; C67: Input-Output Models; D24: Production, Cost, Capital