6 Conclusions
This paper has provided a review of conceptual and methodological issues in measuring productivity. Attention was given to the concept of productivity, the relationship between TFP and technological change, and the importance of productivity measures to economists and policy makers. The paper also surveyed four approaches to measuring productivity: the growth accounting approach; the index number approach; a distance function based approach; and the econometric approach. Coverage was given to historical productivity estimates for the New Zealand economy and data issues that influence productivity measurement and research. The range of productivity estimates for the New Zealand economy reflects differences in both methodology and data, as well as the time period under consideration.
