An important question in alternative economic theories has to do with the relationship between the functional income distribution and the growth rate of labor productivity. According to both the induced innovation hypothesis and Marx-biased technical change, labor productivity growth should be an increasing function of the wage share. In this paper, we first discuss the shortcomings of both theories and then provide a novel microeconomic foundation for a direct relationship between the wage share and labor productivity growth. The result arises because of profit-seeking behavior by capitalist firms that face a trade-off between investing in new capital stock and innovating to save on labor costs. Embedding this finding in the Goodwin (1967) growth cycle model, we show that the resulting steady state is locally stable. We also numerically evaluate the persistence (or lack thereof) of growth cycles for varying elasticities of innovation to R&D spending and investment rates.

替代经济理论中的一个重要问题与功能性收入分配与劳动生产率增长率之间的关系有关。根据诱导创新假说和马克思偏见的技术变革，劳动生产率的增长应该是工资份额的增长函数。在本文中，我们首先讨论两种理论的缺点，然后为工资份额与劳动生产率增长之间的直接关系提供新的微观经济学基础。之所以出现这种结果，是因为资本家公司的寻求利润行为面临着在投资新资本存量和进行创新以节省劳动力成本之间进行权衡的问题。将这一发现嵌入到Goodwin（1967）的增长周期模型中，我们表明所产生的稳态是局部稳定的。