Abstract:
Uzawa s steady-state growth theorem (Uzawa (1961)) is generalized to a neoclassical economy that uses current output, e.g., to create technical progress or to manufacture intermediates. The difference between aggregate final-good production and these resources is referred to as net output. The new generalized steady-state growth theorem holds since net output exhibits constant returns to scale in capital and labor. This insight provides an understanding for why technical change is labor-augmenting in steady state even if capital-augmenting technical change is feasible. By example, this point is made for four growth models that allow for endogenous capital- and labor-augmenting technical change, namely, Irmen and Tabakovic (2015), Acemoglu (2003), Acemoglu (2009), Chapter 15, and for the typical model of the induced innovations literature of the 1960s. The reduced form of these models is shown to be consistent with the generalized steady-state growth theorem.