Title: On the Estimation of Nonneutral Production Technologies without Homothetic Separability

Speaker: Shunan Zhao(Oakland University,US)

Time: 10:00(Thursday) , June 11th, 2026

Venue: Room706, Mingde Business Building (Zhongguancun Campus)

Language: English

ABSTRACT：

His paper develops a novel approach for identifying production functions with factor-biased technical change without requiring homothetic separability. We show that for flexible parametric specifications, such as the translog, this restriction is unnecessary for identification. Leveraging information in the optimal variable input shares (instead of input ratios only), we provide a three-stage estimator within the canonical “proxy variable” tradition. Our framework permits a flexible input substitution structure, avoiding restrictions on production technology and associated firm behavior implied by homothetic separability. We find little empirical corroboration for imposing homothetic separability in three widely used manufacturing production datasets.