What Does Total Factor Productivity Measure?

In this article, as part of the symposium on total factor productivity, Richard G. Lipsey of Simon Fraser University and Kenneth Carlaw of the University of Canterbury in New Zealand provide a trenchant critique of the concept of total factor productivity. They conclude that "the degree of confusion surrounding TFP, particularly the assumption that low TFP numbers imply a low degree of technological dynamism, would seem to us to justify dropping the measure completely from all discussions of long term economic growth".