Measuring Capital Services by Energy Use: An Empirical Comparative Study

Jürgen Bitzer and Erkan Gören

No V-351-13, Working Papers from University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics

Abstract: From an engineering perspective, a capital good’s service is energy conversion – e.g., the physical ‘work’ done by a machine – and can thus be measured directly by the energy consumed in production. We show important empirical advantages of our concept over traditional measures. The empirical application reveals that our concept avoids a number of conceptual problems of the latter. Furthermore, our measure is more sensitive to fluctuations in economic activity and therefore captures the utilization of the capital stock better. In a growth accounting exercise, this results in higher TFP growth rates, especially in times of global recession.

Keywords: capital service; utilization; energy consumption; total factor productivity; growth accounting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D24 E22 O47 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2013-04, Revised 2013-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff, nep-ene and nep-mac
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Published in Oldenburg Working Papers V-351-13

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Related works:
Journal Article: Measuring capital services by energy use: an empirical comparative study (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:old:dpaper:351

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