Empirical Estimates of Technological Change in United States Agriculture, 1850–1958

INCREASES in real income per man-hour are compounded of two parts: relative increases in capital and more efficient utilization of resources. Classical economic theory stressed the notion that higher levels of real income are generated by increasing the capital stock-the higher the level of capital, the higher the marginal revenue product of a worker and so the higher his real wages. Real wages might also be increased by an upward shift of the production function stemming from research that leads to better resource combinations, new techniques, etc. The latter is technological change. Much of the current interest in technological change centers around its relative importance as a determinant of higher real wages.