ABSTRACT

Since the production function is often explained as a technical recipe, we might say that Solow's recipe calls for making a cake with only the cook and his kitchen. We do not need flour, eggs, sugar, etc., nor electricity or natural gas, nor even firewood. If we want a bigger cake, the cook simply stirs faster in a bigger bowl and cooks the empty bowl in a bigger oven that somehow heats itself. Nor does the cook have any cleaning up to do, because the production recipe produces no wastes. There are no rinds, peelings, husks, shells, or residues, f!Or is there any waste heat from the oven to be vented. Furthermore, we can make not only a cake, but any kind of dish--a gumbo, fried

Q = K"'R"'L "' (1)

where Q is output, K is the stock of capital, R is the flow of natural resources used in production, L is the labor supply, and a 1 + a2 + a3 = 1 and of conrse, a,> 0. From this formula it follows that with a constant labor power, L0 , one could obtain any Q0, if the flow of natural resources satisfies the condition

To my knowledge neither Solow nor Stiglitz has ever replied to Georgescu-Roegen's critique. What reply could they make' Let us consider a few possibilities that others have put forward in similar contexts.