Heterodox
This post states a mathematical conjecture. Consider a model of prices of production in which a choice of technique exists. The parameters of model consist of coefficients of production for each technique and given ratios for the rates of profits among industries. The choice of technique can be analyzed based on wage curves. A point that lies simultaneously on the outer envelope of all wage curves and the wage curves for two techniques (for non-negative wages and rates of profits not exceeding the maximum rates of profits for both techniques) is a switch point. Conjecture: The number of switch points is a function of the parameters of the model. The number of switch points varies with variations in the parameters. A pair of switch points can arise if: One wage curve dominates
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Robert Vienneau considers the following as important: Example in Mathematical Economics, Sraffa Effects, Towards Complex Dynamics
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This post states a mathematical conjecture.
Consider a model of prices of production in which a choice of technique exists. The parameters of model consist of coefficients of production for each technique and given ratios for the rates of profits among industries. The choice of technique can be analyzed based on wage curves. A point that lies simultaneously on the outer envelope of all wage curves and the wage curves for two techniques (for non-negative wages and rates of profits not exceeding the maximum rates of profits for both techniques) is a switch point.
Conjecture: The number of switch points is a function of the parameters of the model. The number of switch points varies with variations in the parameters.
- A pair of switch points can arise if:
- One wage curve dominates another for one set of parameter values.
- The wage curves become tangent at a single switch point, for a change in one parameter.
- The point of tangency breaks up into two switch points (reswitching) as that parameter continues in the same direction.
- A switch point can disappear (for an economically relevant ranges of wages) if:
- A switch point exists for some set of parameter values.
- For some variation of a parameter, that switch point becomes the intersection of both wage curves with one of the axes (the wage or the rate of profits).
- A further variation of the parameter in the same direction leads to the point of intersection of the wage curves falling out of the first quadrant.
- Like the above, but a switch point can disappear if a variation in a parameter results in that intersection of two wage curves falling off the outer envelope. (A third wage curve becomes dominant for the wage at which the intersection occurs.)
The above three possibilities are the only generic bifurcations in which the number of switch points can change with model parameters.
Proof: By incredibility. How could it be otherwise?
I claim that the above conjecture applies to a model with n commodities, not just the two-commodity example I have previously analyzed. It applies to a choice among as many finite techniques as you please. Different techniques may require different capital goods as inputs. Not all commodities need be basic.
In actuality, I do not know how to prove this. I am not sure what it means for a bifurcation to be generic in the above conjecture, but I want to allow for a combination of, say, two of the three possibilities. For example, the point of tangency for two wage curves (in the first case) may simultaneously be the intersection of both wage curves with the axis for the rate of profits. In this case, only one switch point arises with continuous variation of model parameters; the other falls below the axis for the rate of profits. I want to say such a bifurcation is non-generic, in some sense.
This post needs pictures. I assume the third possibility can arise for some parameter in at least one of these examples. (Maybe I need to think harder to be sure that the number of switch points changes. What do I want to say is non-generic here?) I have an example in which a switch point disappears by falling below the axis for the rate of profits, but I do not have an example of a switch point disappearing by crossing the wage axis.