Biographical Memoirs Volume 80 (2001) / Chapter Skim
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Zvi Griliches
Zvi Griliches
Pages 80-107
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From page 81... ...
ZVI GRILICHES September I2, I930-November 4, 1999 BY MARC NERLOVE 1. PROLOGUE ZVI GRILICHES was born in Kaunas, Lithuania, on September 12, 1930, en cl cliecl on November 4, 1999, in Cambricige, Massachusetts.
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States, I fine! remarkably little evidence that his subsequent work en cl contributions were affected at all.
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From page 83... ...
awards for his work: the prestigious John Bates Clark Mecial of the American Economic Association in 1965, presidencies of the Econometric Society en c! American Economic Association in 1975 and 1993, respectively, and an honorary degree from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, in 1991.
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From page 84... ...
But his contributions were many en cl diverse en c! some of his work was of lesser importance and Tongrun significance than the more central core.
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From page 85... ...
The subcliscipline of econometrics is no exception in this respect. Griliches's contributions invariably hacl their origin in a serious attempt to resolve some real economic problem en c!
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In his presiclential aciciress to the American Economic Association ~ ~ 994) Griliches wrote: The major message that I will be trying to convey is that we often misinterpret the available data because of inadequate attention to how they are produced and that the same inattention by us to the sources of our data helps to explain why progress is so slow [in this instance in understanding the process of economic growth]
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From page 87... ...
production functions, growth accounting, en c! supply en cl clerivecl clemancI, en cl (4)
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. Using a logistic growth curve to summarize the spreacl of hybrid corn in the various states of the United States, Griliches is able to parameterize the process by three parameters: origin, slope, and ceiling.
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From page 89... ...
His concern with appropriate measurement of inputs en cl estimation of production functions is also reflected! in his work on measurement of labor inputs en cl thus to that on the relation among education or schooling, ability en cl income as a way of acljusting labor input in studies of productivity en c!
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From page 90... ...
More recent work on the quality of patents rather than a simple count has clemonstratec! a closer relationship between inventive activity en cl growth at the firm level.
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From page 91... ...
Several appear in the 1984 volume edited by Griliches. The papers in this volume clear, inter alia, with the following questions: "What is the relationship of R & D investments at the firm en cl industry level to subsequent performance indicators such as patents, productivity, en cl market value?
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From page 92... ...
, it is more properly treated as an aspect of production function analysis in Section 4 below. For his own view of the history of this subject see Griliches (1996~.
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From page 93... ...
He usecl the technique very effectively in work on productivity growth en cl its sources, as clescribecl in the next section. Although heclonic analysis for all its practical importance was not central to Griliches's work, the iclea that commodities are buncIles of attributes has important implications for the appropriate measurement of inputs en cl outputs in the analysis of changes in total factor productivity, for if the growth in quaTity-acljustec!
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From page 94... ...
4. PRODUCTION FUNCTIONS, TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY MEASUREMENT, SUPPLY AND DERIVED DEMAND The basic framework for growth accounting, equivalently, measurement of total factor productivity, was laicl out many years ago by Abramovitz ~ ~ 950, ~ 956, ~ 962)
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en cl mechanization ~ ~ 959) , en cl in turn to a more general formulation of the total factor productivity problem (1960~.
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Proper measurement of capital input requires not only attention to quality changes en cl prices but, in aciclition, to the determination of new investment, aciclitions to the stock, en c! as to how such investments are translatecl into the relevant input variable and more recently the computer "revolution." Measurement of the "correct" labor input requires attention to the quality of the labor force, or the stock of "human capital" embocliecl in it, en cl this in turn leacis to the attempt to measure the effects of education on the productivity of labor.
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Within the framework of social accounting the hypothesis is that if real product and real factor input are accurately accounted for, the observed growth in total factor productivity is negligible. G & ~ assume that the unclerlying production technology is constant returns to scale, that factors are paid their marginal products, en cl that the economy is in competitive equilibrium.
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Ringstac! estimate a number of production functions from ciata on a large number of individual manufacturing establishments from the 1963 Norwegian Census of Manufactures.
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From page 99... ...
him to a series of studies relating earnings to schooling and, perforce, the unobservable variable, ability. Although, from the standpoint of Griliches's core contribution, this work may have been inciclental in that it was largely relatecl to a desire to adjust the quality of the labor input over time, I regard it as funciamental to the clevelopment of pane!
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From page 100... ...
refers to them, help to identify the coefficients in the earnings schooling relationship despite the unobservability of the latent ability variable. In subsequent papers publishecl in the clecacle Griliches ~ ~ 972, ~ 976, ~ 977)
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From page 101... ...
The central core of Griliches's contribution to economic science consists of his contributions to our unclerstancling of productivity growth in the context of general economic growth. His central insight was to see that "technical change, " which Abramovitz ~ ~ 956)
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its impact on growth. Because technical change is typically measured by changes in total factor productivity, be it at the firm, industry, or economy-wicle level, measurement of these factor inputs becomes crucial.
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1939. Hedonic price indexes with automotive examples.
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1957. Technical change and the aggregate production function.
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Specification bias in estimates of production functions.
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Amsterdam: North Holland. 1979 issues in assessing the contribution of R&D to productivity growth.
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Empirical patterns of firm growth and R&D investment: A quality ladder model interpretation.
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