“a Theory of Production”1 the Estimation of the Cobb-douglas Function: a Retrospective View

As Solow once remarked to me, we would not now be concerned with the question [the existence of the aggregate production function] had Paul Douglas found labor's share of American output to be twenty-five per cent and capital's share seventy-five instead of the other way around [Fisher, 1969, 572]. I hope that someone skilled in econometrics and labor will audit and evaluate my critical findings [Samuelson, 1979, 934].