The Relative Share of Labor in United States Agriculture, 1949–1968

Abstract

Abstract The sources of change in the relative share of labor in the American agricultural sector are examined within the framework of neoclassical production theory. It is found that the observed decline in labor's relative share is due to the increasing capital‐labor ratio adjusted for changing efficiency of factors and to the elasticity of substitution which is greater than unity. It is also found that the efficiency of capital is increasing faster than that of labor and that technological change in American agriculture has been labor‐saving.