Decomposing TFP Growth in the Presence of Cost Inefficiency, Nonconstant Returns to Scale, and Technological Progress

A thorough understanding of changes in productivity measures is important to economists and policymakers, because productivity growth is a major source of economic growth. This article explores the relationship between changes in total factor productivity (TFP) growth, defined using an index number approach, and changes in returns to scale, cost efficiency, and technology. Several decompositions are developed, using alternatively production and cost frontiers. The last decomposition developed also allows for multiple outputs.