什么是生产力

经济学中指生产成品与生产该产品所需投入物之间的比率。虽然生产力的计算因土地或资本难以计算而很少真正把它们加入计算，但在原则上任何传统的生产要素（土地、劳动力或资本）都可被用作这一生产比率的分母。劳动力在多数情况下很容易计算，如可用某一产品占有的劳动者数量来计算。在工业国家中，生产力提高的结果主要表现在劳动力的使用上。生产力不仅可以被视为有效的计量方法，还是经济发展的一个指标。从原始采集经济发展成技术上较复杂的经济时，生产力会提高。欧洲和美国生产力的提高是伴随着蒸汽、铁路和汽油发动机等技术的发展而产生的。生产力的提高一般会长期提高工人的实际工资。

productivity

In economics, a measure of productive efficiency calculated as the ratio of what is produced to what is required to produce it. Any of the traditional factors of production—land, labor, or capital—can be used as the denominator of the ratio, though productivity calculations are actually seldom made for land or capital since their capacity is difficult to measure. Labor is in most cases easily quantified—for example, by counting workers engaged on a particular product. In industrial nations, the effects of increasing productivity are shown most clearly in the use of labor. Productivity can be seen not only as a measure of efficiency but also as an indicator of economic development. Productivity increases as a primitive extractive economy develops into a technologically sophisticated one. The pattern of increase typically exhibits long-term stability interrupted by sudden leaps that represent major technological advances. Productivity in Europe and the U.S. made great strides following the development of such technologies as the steam power, the railroad, and the gasoline motor. Increases in productivity tend to lead to long-term increases in real wages.