Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book analyses raw material supply and resource use from a global perspective. It proposes that only large companies have the necessary financial capabilities to develop new, low-grade, but giant deposits far from markets and existing infrastructure. The book presents a production frontier approach to growth accounting and chooses data envelopment analysis as the frontier estimation method. It discusses the implications of a one-sided augmentation of labour productivity on capital and resource productivities. The book seeks to test the hypothesis that resource productivity leads to an enhancement of competitiveness through lowering material purchasing costs and through developing new products and services that lower the overall resource intensity. It reflects on the political economy of sustainable growth by analysing prevailing concepts of management.