The Cobb-Douglas Production Function: An Antipodean Defence?

In this paper a re-examination of the original time-series data sets used by Professor Douglasand associated researchers to establish the existence of an aggregate production function isundertaken. Particular attention is paid to the issue of whether the data provide deductive supportfor the ‘Laws of Production’ as claimed by Douglas (1948). Various statistical methods areused to analyse the data to see if the claims of Douglas are justified. Only the New South Walesdata and to a lesser extent the New Zealand data yield results that support the assertions ofDouglas - hence the Antipodean defence.