Improvement in knowledge about techniques for production. Such progress may allow more output to be obtained from unchanged inputs, the same output to be obtained from fewer inputs, or new forms of output to be produced which were not previously possible. Technical progress may be embodied or disembodied. If it is disembodied, improvements in productivity are purely due to new knowledge or improved skills, without the need for any new equipment. If it is embodied, exploitation of the new techniques requires investment in new capital equipment or new intermediate products. See also disembodied technical progress; embodied technical progress; Harrod-neutral technical progress; Hicks-neutral technical progress.