"Good" and "bad" GDP growth

GDP is often rightly criticised as a measure of growth, and even more so as a measure of well-being. In particular, faster GDP growth leads to increased CO 2 emissions. We believe it is possible to separate "good" from "bad" GDP growth. We start from the calculation of total factor productivity with three production factors: labour, capital and energy. Total factor productivity growth is the growth that can be achieved without using more capital, labour or energy. If GDP growth results from total factor productivity growth calculated in this way, with three production factors including energy, it does not require any increase in the use of production factors, and therefore does not destroy scarce resources. But if it does not stem from total factor productivity, it requires an increase in consumption of production factors, with the associated negative effects (commodity consumption, CO 2 emissions, etc.). We can therefore use the term "good growth" for the share of GDP growth that results from total factor productivity growth, and "bad growth" for the rest of GDP growth. Currently, at the global level, "good growth" is on average 1.5% per year, "bad growth" is 2.2% per year; at the OECD level, "good growth" is on average 1.0% per year, and "bad growth" is 0.8% per year.