Economic Categories «Resources» and «Factors of Production»: Energy Approach

Abstract

The study differentiates the categories of economic resources and factors of production in the context of ideas about energy characteristics of the economic system. It opens up the possibility of searching for new methods and tools of economic policy that ensure the development of the economic system by increasing the efficiency of forming resource potential and using it as factors of production. The author's approach to the methodological characteristics of Labor, Land, Capital and Entrepreneurship is proposed in the light of dualism: «economic resource — production factor». We discussed the conditions for the transformation of potential resource opportunities into an economically active form of means of production that create a product to meet the needs of society. The concepts of potential production energy of labor, energy of production activity of labor, total production energy of labor were introduced and formalized. We propose a quantitative assessment of the level of employment of human capital. The authors proposed indicators to assess the factors of production: Earth (potential productive energy of nature; energy of the productive activity of nature; total productive energy of nature; the level of employment of Natural capital); Capital (employment rate of technical and technological capital); Entrepreneurial abilities (share of the Entrepreneurial ability factor in the value of human capital, marginal propensity for entrepreneurial activity).