Macroeconomic Implications of Variation in the Workweek of Capital
Macroeconomic Implications of Variation in the Workweek of Capital
复制标题
资本工作周变化的宏观经济影响
DOI：
10.2307/2534620
复制
发表时间：
1996
影响因子：
4.1
通讯作者：
M. Shapiro
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
M. Shapiro
在一个典型的工作周里，美国每四个制造业生产工人中就有一个在夜间工作。这一比例在商业周期中大幅波动，对就业的商业周期变化不成比例。夜间工作的变化占制造业生产工人就业周期性变化的40%以上。虽然轮班工作的周期性变化在许多制造业中普遍存在，但在一些非制造业中，这种变化也很重要。轮班次数和时间长短的变化影响着资本的工作周。论证资本工作周对研究经济周期的重要性是本文的主要目的。在大多数商业周期模型中，资本存量被视为准固定的。产出的周期性变化是由于在固定资本存量上投入了或多或少的劳动力。资本的这一属性将导致劳动的边际产出递减，反周期的真实的工资和劳动的平均产出，并可能导致产能约束。然而，凯恩斯主义的周期性生产率的学生早就意识到可变产能利用率的重要性。他们的模型承认资本和劳动力的持续失业或不充分就业，可以很容易地免除劳动力边际产量递减的影响。均衡商业周期的研究还发现，
IN A TYPICAL workweek, one in every four manufacturing production workers in the United States is employed at night. This fraction fluctuates sharply over the business cycle, accounting disproportionately for business cycle changes in employment. The variation in work at night amounts to over 40 percent of the cyclical changes in the employment of manufacturing production workers. While cyclical movements in shiftwork are pervasive in many manufacturing industries, there are also some nonmanufacturing industries in which such variation is important. Changes in the number, as well as the length, of shifts affect the workweek of capital. Demonstrating the importance of the workweek of capital for studying business cycles is the main goal of this paper. In most business cycle models, the capital stock is taken as quasi-fixed. Cyclical variation in output arises from applying more or less labor to a fixed capital stock. This property of capital should lead to diminishing marginal product of labor, to countercyclical real wage and average product of labor, and potentially to capacity constraints. Keynesian students of cyclical productivity, however, have long realized the importance of variable utilization of capacity. Their models, which admit the persistent unemployment or underemployment of both capital and labor, can readily dispense with the implications of diminishing marginal product of labor. Work on equilibrium business cycles also finds