LABOR PRODUCTIVITY - A BIOPHYSICAL DEFINITION AND ASSESSMENT

A model of energy analysis is presented to study the concept of labor productivity from a biophysical perspective. It is argued that current methods of defining and assessing labor productivity in the fields of work physiology and input/output energy analysis are relatively poor operational tools for assessing productivity in the economy and societ y. We propose to adopt society as the hierarchical level of analysis r ather than the individual, as labor productivity can best be studied a s a function of parameters related to the technological development of society. Parameters considered are: the ratio exosomatic/endosomatic energy used in society, the ratio working/non-working population, the return on the circulating energy investment, and the profile of human time allocated to the economic process. The links between patterns Of human time allocation, population structure, standard of living, techn ological development, and demand on natural resources are analyzed. Th e results suggest that the role and meaning of human labor differ wide ly in societies with different levels of technological development.