The simplest is what we call productive efficiency. I make bricks. When I make bricks, how can I make the brick with the lowest amount of energy, the lowest amount of materials and the lowest amount of labour? And that s productive efficiency. So I m the most efficient brick producer if I can make the cheapest brick.
The second form of efficiency is what s called allocative efficiency, which is where I allocate the resource to the activity which earns the highest return.
第二种形式的效率是我们所称的“配置效率”,就是说要把人力物力资源投入盈利最高的生产活动中。
The third kind of efficiency is dynamic efficiency and that would occur where the world is changing and I m not the best producer of bricks. But I am actually very good at designing innovative bricks - bricks that lock together in ways that make it easier for builders, bricks with colours and textures that consumers like, that the builder who wants a bit of flair will strive for. And so I could be dynamically very efficient and actually get a higher price for my bricks. 第三种效率是“动态效率”。世界在不断变化,我不是最好的制砖工人,但我实际上很擅长设计具有创新意味的砖,比如砖与砖结合在一起的方式使建筑工人工作起来更简单方便、砖的颜色和纹路更受顾客欢迎,那些想有些变化的建筑工都愿意使用。因此我会获得出色的动态效率,卖出比较高的价格。
Today in Australia I think that the allocative and the dynamic efficiency is much more important. I mean, we aren t going to be able to compete against low wage and low cost countries by just making a cheaper brick. We have to come up with better designs, better quality, software and services that enhance our products. And when we talk about efficiency in those terms we tend to talk about dynamic efficiency and allocative efficiency.
他说,技术或生产效率针对的是如何生产的问题,涉及的是成本最低的生产方法。分配效率,或者称作“多向生产效率”,讲的是生产什么以及衡量是否在不同产品和服务之间恰当地分配了资源。动态效率则注重于革新,衡量生产者能否追随顾客对各种产品和服务兴趣的变化而改革自己的生产。 And there s another type of efficiency - what s referred to as exchange efficiency and this impacts on the "for whom" question. It may be efficient to price telephone services out of the reach of people in rural Autralia, but it is not equitable to do so. Exchange efficiency always involves a trade-off between equity and efficiency.