Energy Productivity and Overall Efficiency

Koji Nomura

Chapter Chapter 4 in Energy Productivity and Economic Growth, 2022, pp 121-176 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This chapter analyzes the cyclical relationship between energy productivity improvement (EPI) and total factor productivity growth (TFPG). The first direction of the cycle is from TFPG to EPI. In Japan’s economic growth, technological changes that require more energy input per labor unit were robustly observed. Although this directly depressed energy productivity, it contributed to EPI by increasing labor productivity and TFP, offsetting the negative effect. This chapter formulates an EPI consisting of an energy-saving factor through an increase in the capital-energy ratio, an energy-enhancing factor through a decline in the labor-energy ratio, and an overall-efficiency factor as TFPG. The measurement shows that the most significant factor in achieving sustainable EPI in the postwar Japanese economy was TFPG, not the energy-saving factor. The second direction of the cycle is from EPI to TFPG. Since the 1990s, further energy-saving investment led to a significant decline in capital productivity, and TFPG tended to turn negative in some energy-intensive industries. In addition, EPI in the service sector has been achieved while reducing energy use per labor unit, which has been at the expense of labor productivity and TFPG. These suggest the difficulty of balancing the pursuit of EPI with the economy’s overall efficiency.

Keywords: Energy productivity improvement (EPI); Labor productivity; Capital productivity; Total factor productivity (TFP); Growth accounting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-981-19-6494-7_4

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DOI: 10.1007/978-981-19-6494-7_4

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