The measurement of total factor productivity of the Hong Kong construction industry

Previous research work concerning construction productivity has often been related to labour productivity. Although easy to measure and understand, labour productivity may be misleading in measuring the efficiency of utilization of resources. An alternative concept - total factor productivity - is preferred. However, this concept has seldom been used in empirical research of construction productivity due to problems of measurement and availability of data. This paper presents a method of indirectly measuring the total factor productivity of the construction industry using various construction cost and price indices and other statistics. Although special reference has been made to the construction industry of Hong Kong, the same approach should also be applicable to other countries.