Losses and use efficiencies along the phosphorus cycle – Part 2: Understanding the concept of efficiency

Roland W. Scholz and Friedrich-Wilhelm Wellmer

Resources, Conservation & Recycling, 2015, vol. 105, issue PB, 259-274

Abstract: Part 1 of this paper showed that losses and efficiencies are highly similar concepts used to valuate the quality of a production process from an input–output economics perspective. Both concepts are useful in methods that aim to reduce the amount of input (money, material, labor, etc.) needed to get a certain desired output. Yet, from a decision-theoretic perspective, both concepts are secondary. They are subordinate to the desired goal, product, or service, i.e., the efficacy, and the overall impacts on a tangible system, i.e., effectiveness (which we consider as an overall utility) and are of superior importance to an action or a decision.

Keywords: Phosphorus; Effectiveness; Efficiency; Efficacy; Law of diminishing returns; Efficiency and efficacy increase fallacy (in living systems) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:recore:v:105:y:2015:i:pb:p:259-274

DOI: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2015.10.003

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