Ces étranges machines extrême-occidentales

CES Working Paper 2-05

Production Functions Having the Ces Property

To what measure does the CES (constant elasticity of substitution) property determine production functions? We show that it is not possible to find explicitly all two variable production functions f(x, y) having the CES property. This slightly generalizes the result of R. Sato [16]. We show that if a production function is a quasi-sum then the CES property determines only the functional forms o...

Calibrated CES Utility Functions: A Worked Example

As is the case for all interesting questions in economics, the only good answer to this problem is “It depends.”. It is fairly easy to see how this works on intuitive grounds. Thomas’s offer in Zürich does not pay him enough to live exactly the lifestyle that he enjoys in Ann Arbor, as he would need a 60% raise to cover rent and consumption. The elasticity of substitution is key. If it is high,...

The CES distribution circle and its decoupling

We show for CES demands with heterogeneous production costs that profit, revenue, and output distributions lie in the same class as the productivity distribution (e.g., the "Pareto circle"), although the price distribution lies in the inverse class. We relate distribution shapes via the elasticities of their densities. Introducing product quality decouples the CES circle. Then, all distribution...

3ivx MPEG-4 5.0 released at CES

HDTV 60 million households will have at least one wide screen, High-Definition TV display in their home by the end of 2007, according to In-Stat predictions. The ability to produce broadcast quality compressed video in realtime makes 3ivx MPEG-4 5.0 uniquely suited for HDTV production environments. 3ivx produces high quality HD MPEG-4 Video with 5.1 Surround Sound MPEG-4 AAC Audio in less than ...