Ecological footprint (EF): An expanded role in calculating resource productivity (RP) using China and the G20 member countries as examples

As resources become scarcer measuring resource productivity (RP) is more important. Quantifying the value of natural resources is challenging but the ecological footprint (EF) concept provides one method of uniformly describing a variety of natural resources. Current assessments of RP mainly revolve around output efficiency of resources, namely the ratio of GDP to natural resource usage.This paper develops a new method of calculating the RP by using the EF as an indicator of the natural resource input and gross domestic product (GDP) as the output in the equation of RP = GDP/EF. A regression analysis is carried out using GDP per capita and RP of China from 1997 to 2011, and a comparative analysis with the members of the G20 countries according to their RP and per capita GDP in 2008. The results indicate that RP correlates with the per capita GDP, showing that RP is a valid indicator which can be used to measure a country’s level of economic development.