Efficiency, productivity, national accounts and economic growth with a green view: Theory, methodology and applications

In this dissertation study, the theory of technical efficiency and economic efficiency is developed, and the axioms of efficiency measures are designed and verified. The essence of efficiency measurement in the presence of environmental externalities is disclosed, and a frontier model for deriving shadow prices and a two-stage model for deriving production frontiers are introduced. A methodology that can be feasibly implemented is constructed for measuring efficiency and productivity growth while incorporating externalities.; The contribution of the study is also reflected in environmental statistics, including 174 countries in the period of 1980--2000. Besides GDP, labor and capital stock as economic variables, three environmental indicators are included: energy use, carbon dioxide emissions and water pollutants. Applying production frontier analysis, the actual shadow prices of environmental variables are derived. The statistics of green GDP and green productivity growth are provided across countries. The integrated environmental-economic analysis on GDP and productivity provides an informational background for evaluating social policies, and the derivation of shadow prices of environmental externalities is helpful for formulating market mechanisms for environmental management and ultimately achieving society's optimal growth.; Growth empirics are based on the statistics which are accurately derived. In terms of growth accounting, factor shares are derived with absence of market perfection. With considering environmental contribution to growth, the study provides growth decomposition for each country and analyzes whether economic growth is mainly contributed by TFP growth or by factor accumulation. A model for testing productivity convergence is proposed, in which the pitfalls of traditional convergence testing are overcome and by which convergence can be correctly and easily tested. The Malmquist productivity index is used to justify whether the development of information technology has created a new economy. The research adds new breadth to growth empirics, and the empirical results provide information on sources and paths of economic growth.; The significance of this study is reflected in both the academic literature of efficiency and productivity measurement and the political objective of environmental policy. This dissertation provides a complete line of theoretical ground, applicable methodology, measurement results, and empirical analysis.