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--158.64.118.20 08:47, 27 March 2006 (UTC)In economics, productivity is the amount of output created (in terms of goods produced or services rendered) per unit input used. For instance, labour productivity is typically measured as output per worker or output per labour-hour. With respect to land, the "yield" is equivalent to "land productivity". Economics (from the Greek οίκος [oikos], family, household, estate, and νομος [nomos], custom, law, hence household management and management of the state) is a social science that studies the production, distribution, trade and consumption of goods and services. ...
Measures of factor productivity Some economists write of "capital productivity" (output per unit of capital goods employed), the inverse of the capital/output ratio. "Total factor productivity," sometimes called multifactor productivity, also includes both labor and capital goods in the denominator (weighted by their incomes).
Unlike labor productivity, the calculation of both capital productivity and total factor productivity is dependent on a number of doubtful assumptions and is subject to the Cambridge critique. Even measures of land and labor productivity should be used only when conscious of the role of the heterogeneity of these inputs to the production process. The capital controversy refers to a debate in economics concerning the nature and role of capital goods (or means of production) that occurred during the 1960s, largely between economists such as Joan Robinson and Piero Sraffa at the University of Cambridge in England and economists such as Paul Samuelson and...
Productivity studies Productivity studies analyze technical processes and engineering relationships such as how much of an output can be produced in a specified period of time (see also Taylorism). Taylorism or Scientific management is the name of the approach to management and Industrial/Organizational Psychology initiated by Frederick Winslow Taylor in his 1911 monograph The Principles of Scientific Management. ...
It is related to the concept of efficiency, which is the amount of output produced relative to the amount of resources (time and money) that go into the production. Efficiency is the capability of acting or producing effectively with a minimum amount or quantity of waste, expense, or unnecessary effort. ...
All else constant, it benefits a business to improve productivity, which over time lowers cost and (hopefully) improves ability to compete and make profit. Increases in productivity also influence society more broadly, by improving living standards, creating income, and generating economic growth. Profit is a positive return made on an investment by an individual or by business operations. ...
Increases in productivity Companies can increase productivity in a variety of ways. The most obvious methods involve automation and computerization which minimize the tasks that must be performed by employees. Recently, less obvious techniques are being employed that involve ergonomic design and worker comfort. A comfortable employee, the theory maintains, can produce more than a counterpart who struggles through the day. In fact, some studies claim that measures such as raising workplace temperature can have a drastic effect on office productivity. Experiments done by the Japanese Shiseido corporation also suggested that productivity could be increased by means of perfuming or deodorising the air conditioning system of workplaces.
Increases in productivity also can influence society more broadly, by improving living standards, and creating income. They are central to the process generating economic growth and capital accumulation. Accumulated GDP growth for various countries. ...
Most generally, the accumulation of capital refers simply to the gathering or amassment of objects of value; the increase in wealth; or the creation of wealth. ...
A new theory suggests that the increased contribution that productivity has on economic growth is largely due to the relatively high price of technology and its exportation via trade, as well as domestic use due to high demand, rather than attributing it to micro economic efficiency theories which tend to downsize economic growth and reduce labor productivity for the most part.
Many economists see the economic expansion of the later 1990s in the United States as being allowed by the massive increase in worker productivity that occurred during that period. The growth in aggregate supply allowed increases in aggregate demand and decreases in unemployment at the same time that inflation remained stable. Others emphasize drastic changes in patterns of social behaviour resulting from new communication technologies and changed male-female relationships. The 1990s decade refers to the years from 1990 to 1999, inclusive. ...
In economics, aggregate supply is the total supply of goods and services by a national economy during a specific time period. ...
In economics, aggregate demand is the total demand for goods and services in the economy (Y) during a specific time period. ...
In economics, a person who is able and willing to work at prevailing wage rate yet is unable to find a paying job is considered unemployed. ...
Labor productivity
 Labour productivity USA, Japan, FRG Labor productivity is generally speaking held to be the same as the "average product of labor" (average output per worker or per worker-hour, an output which could be measured in physical terms or in price terms). Image File history File links Download high resolution version (970x604, 39 KB) Summary Labour productivity computed by me as Gross Domestic Product in current prices at current exchange rates per employee. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (970x604, 39 KB) Summary Labour productivity computed by me as Gross Domestic Product in current prices at current exchange rates per employee. ...
Motto: Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit (German: Unity and Justice and Freedom ) Anthem: The third stanza of Das Lied der Deutschen Capital Berlin Largest city Berlin Official language(s) German 1 Government President Chancellor Vice Chancellor Federal Republic Horst Köhler Angela Merkel (CDU) Franz Müntefering (SPD) Formation Holy...
It is not the same as the marginal product of labor, which refers to the increase in output that results from a corresponding increase in labor input. In economics, the marginal product or marginal physical product of an input to production during a specific time period is as follows, assuming that no other inputs to production change: marginal product of X used in producing Y = ΔY/ΔX = (the change of Y)/(the change of X). ...
However, some aspects of labor productivity may be very difficult to measure exactly, or in an unbiased way, such as:
- the intensity of labor-effort, and the quality of labor effort generally.
- the creative activity involved in producing technical innovations.
- the relative efficiency gains resulting from different systems of management, organisation, co-ordination or engineering.
- the productive effects of some forms of labor on other forms of labor.
One important reason is that these aspects of productivity refer mainly to its qualitative, rather than quantitative, dimensions. We might be able to observe definite increases in output, even though we do not know what those increases should be attributed to.
This insight becomes particularly important when a large part of what is produced in an economy consists of services. Management may be very preoccupied with the productivity of employees, but the productivity gains of management itself might be very difficult to prove.
This may mean that a lot of what is said about productivity is based on opinion, rather than empirical evidence. Modern management literature emphasizes the important effect of the overall work culture or organisational culture that an enterprise has. But again the specific effects of any particular culture on productivity may be unprovable.
Marx on productivity In Karl Marx's labour theory of value, the concept of capital productivity is rejected as an instance of reification, and replaced with the concepts of the organic composition of capital and the value product of labor. Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818 Trier, Germany – March 14, 1883 London) was an immensely influential German philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary organizer of the International Workingmens Association. ...
The labor theory of value (LTV) is a theory in economics and political economy concerning a market-oriented society: the theory equates the value of an exchangeable good or service (i. ...
Reification, also called hypostatization, is treating a concept, an abstraction, as if it were a real, concrete thing. ...
The organic composition of capital (OCC) is a concept created by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy and used in Marxian economics as a theoretical alternative to neo-classical concepts of factors of production, production functions, capital productivity and capital-output ratios. ...
The value product (VP) is an economic concept formulated by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy during the 1860s, and used in Marxian social accounting theory for capitalist economies. ...
A sharp distinction is drawn by Marx for the productivity of labor in terms of physical outputs produced, and the value or price of those outputs. A small physical output might create a large value, while a large physical output might create only a small value - with obvious consequences for the way the labor producing it would be rewarded in the marketplace.
Moreover if a large output value was created by people, this did not necessarily have anything to do with their physical productivity; it could be just due to the favorable valuation of that output when traded in markets. Therefore, merely focusing on an output value realised, to assess productivity, might lead to mistaken conclusions.
In general, Marx rejected the possibility of a concept of productivity that would be completely neutral and unbiased by the interests or norms of different social classes. At best, one could say that objectively, some practices in a society were generally regarded as more or less productive, or as improving productivity - irrespective of whether this was really true. In other words, productivity was always interpreted from some definite point of view.
Typically, Marx suggested in his critique of political economy, only the benefits of raising productivity were focused on, rather than the human (or environmental) costs involved. Thus, Marx could even find some sympathy for the Luddites, and he introduced the critical concept of the rate of exploitation of human labour power to balance the obvious economic progress resulting from an increase in the productive forces of labor. Political economy was the original term for the study of production, the acts of buying and selling, and their relationships to laws, customs and government. ...
The Luddites were a group of English workers in the early 1800s who protested – often by destroying machines – against the changes produced by the Industrial Revolution that they felt threatened their jobs. ...
The rate of exploitation is a concept in Marxian political economy. ...
According to Karl Marx, there is a clear distinction between labor and labor-power in economics. ...
Productive forces, productive powers or forces of production [in German, Produktivkräfte] is a central concept in Marxism and historical materialism. ...
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