What are the factors of economic growth?

Statisticians ask about the factors that affect long-term economic growth. The long-term economic growth of a society is often influenced by many factors in the total supply. Generally speaking, it mainly depends on the input quantity of production factors and the improvement of production factor efficiency. (1) Factors of production: including labor, capital, land and other natural resources. Because land and other natural resources can be regarded as a special form of capital, labor and capital are often regarded as two basic factors of production that affect long-term economic growth. If other conditions are certain, then the more labor and capital an economy and society invest, the more output it will have, and the faster its economic growth will be. The amount of labor depends on the number of workers and working hours, and on the population growth when working hours remain unchanged. The amount of capital mainly depends on capital accumulation, including the scale and speed of capital accumulation and the amount of foreign capital introduced. (2) Efficiency of production factors: Economic growth depends not only on the input quantity of production factors, but also on the efficiency of production factors. If the input of production factors remains unchanged, the higher the efficiency of production factors, the faster the growth of total output; On the contrary, the lower the efficiency of production factors, the slower the growth of total output. The improvement of the efficiency of production factors is mainly manifested in the improvement of the quality of workers, the improvement of the technical level of machinery and equipment in the form of material capital, and the improvement of the combination of labor and capital. The main factors affecting the efficiency of production factors are: ① Technological progress. This means improving the efficiency of production factors through technological innovation, transformation, application of new technologies and adjustment and upgrading of technological structure. ② Accumulation of knowledge and human capital. The accumulation of knowledge refers to the increase of general knowledge and expertise that can be used in the production process. The accumulation of human capital refers to the increase of human resources to master material labor skills. ③ Institutional innovation. Usually refers to the reform of the existing specific social and economic system, such as political organization, economic organization, tax system, education system, economic system, etc., as well as the existing enterprise system. Technological progress, accumulation of knowledge and human capital and institutional innovation will greatly promote the efficiency of production factors, and then promote the long-term economic growth of a country or region. It is precisely for this reason that when analyzing the factors that affect economic growth, economics often regards technological progress, accumulation of knowledge and human capital and institutional innovation as the third factor that determines long-term economic growth besides labor and capital. Samuel, an American economist, regards human resources (including labor supply, education, discipline and encouragement), natural resources (including land, minerals, fuel and environmental quality), capital (machinery, factories and roads) and technology (science, engineering, management and entrepreneurial talents) as four wheels of economic growth. Denison, an American economist, divided the factors affecting economic growth into two categories: the input of production factors and the productivity of production factors. The input of production factors includes labor input, capital input and land input. Among them, the amount of land input is unchangeable, while the amount of labor input and capital input is variable. Denison regards the productivity of production factors as the ratio of output to input, that is, the output achieved by unit input. On this basis, Denison attributed the factors affecting economic growth to seven points. These seven factors are: ① the number of workers and their age and gender composition; ② Including the working hours of part-time workers; (3) the education level of employees; (4) Capital stock scale; ⑤ Resource allocation status; ⑥ economies of scale; ⑦ Knowledge progress. Among the above seven factors, the first four are basically the input of production factors, and the last three are the productivity of production factors. Another American economist and statistician, Kuznets, used statistical analysis methods to classify the statistical data of the United States, Britain and other developed countries 100 years, and explored the factors affecting economic growth from the differences of economic growth in various countries. He attributed the factors affecting economic growth to three aspects: ① the improvement of productivity; ② Changes in economic structure; ③ The growth of knowledge stock. In fact, at different stages of social and economic development, various growth factors have different degrees and contributions to economic growth. In the traditional agricultural society based on manual labor, labor is the most important factor to promote economic growth. At this time, the growth of population and the improvement of labor efficiency have become the most basic and important source of economic growth. After the beginning of industrialization, with the emergence and development of machinery industry, capital accumulation and technological progress have contributed more and more to economic growth. In the early stage of industrialization, capital accumulation once became the key to restricting economic growth. In modern society, although the role of capital accumulation in economic growth cannot be underestimated, technological progress, knowledge and human capital accumulation and institutional innovation are playing an increasingly important role in promoting economic growth. It is precisely because different factors will play a leading role in economic growth at different stages of economic development that many economic growth models have appeared in modern economic growth theory.