Eco-efficiency and eco-productivity change over time in a multisectoral economic system

In the literature two approaches of productivity analyses can be found, namely the neoclassical approach and the frontier approach. Neoclassical analysis weights inputs by value shares, a procedure that requires data on factor input shares or prices. This approach imputes productivity growth to factors, but cannot distinguish a movement towards the efficiency frontier and a movement of the latter. In contrast, the frontier approach allows decomposing productivity growth into a movement of the economy towards the frontier and a shift of the latter but cannot impute productivity growth to factors. Ten Raa and Mohnen (2002) were the first who proposed a model to resolve these limitations. They estimated total factor productivity (TFP) growth without recourse to data on factor input prices. In their work they reproduced the neoclassical TFP growth formulas, but in a framework that is Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in spirit.