Production theory has, over the course of the past two centuries, been besieged by criticism, ranging from its weak fundamentals to its lack of coherence with the physical sciences. Yet, no real alternatives have emerged with the result that neoclassical production theory continues to hold sway much as it did over the past century. This paper presents a consilient theory of production, one that is grounded in classical mechanics, is empirically validated, and sheds light on myriad productivity-related phenomena. Specifically, a two-tiered approach to modeling production is proposed. In the first tier, a kinetics-based theory is developed where output is an increasing function of energy consumption, in keeping with basic physics. In the second tier, the organization of energy-based material processes (the first tier) is modeled. The resulting model is estimated using U.S. manufacturing two-digit SIC data from 1947 to 1989.
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