Total Factor Productivity: An Ecological-Economic Critique
Total factor productivity (TFP) is a central concept in the mainstream analysis of economic growth. Using aggregate production functions, economists estimate the shares of economic growth explained by increases in capital, labor, and (in some applications) natural resource inputs. The residual of unexplained growth is then ascribed to “disembodied” technological advance or TFP. This article develops a radical ecological-economic critique of TFP analysis. The critique uses Marxist theory to synthesize relevant nonmainstream perspectives including ecological economics (especially Georgescu-Roegen's critique of the aggregate production function and Daly's rejection of the mainstream “circular flow” vision of the economy), neo-Schumpetarian criticisms of disembodied technological change, and the “identification” critique which shows that TFP estimates merely capture the accounting identity between income and value added. From a Marxist perspective, TFP theory's false dematerialization of production technology...