"Alternatives to GDP" chapter in The Future of GDP report (original) (raw)

Book review: Beyond GDP: Measuring Welfare and Assessing Sustainability

2021

It is widely known among economists and policymakers that GDP lacks many of the pertinent variables that contribute to well-being. In the dawn of mercantilism, some schools like bullionism proposed that wealth came from the accumulation of precious metals and when GDP (Attributed to Adam Smith) measures began, the concept of wealth also changed, but the perception of well-being did not, and it as was a collective agreement that wealthier societies lived better, of course, welfare involves a more complex dynamic than that. "But even if economists cannot be accused of overselling the GDP, they should perhaps feel a special responsibility for helping to construct better alternatives" (xii), in that concern the book focuses on the multiple alternatives proposed to measure the well-being, and as the title of the book reveals: going "Beyond GDP."

Economic Development and Human Happiness Creates a Quality Growth at Global Level

2016

The era of GNP and GDP has been characterized by a huge global rise in living standards and in wealth. At the moment, though, GDP is embattled. Economists and national leaders are increasingly talking about measuring a country’s status with other metrics and even with a squishy-seeming concept like “happiness.” Any GDP expansion should “focus on economic aspects of non-market and near-market activities and not attempt to measure the welfare effect of such interactions.” Even then, they warned, “it is critical that such an expansion of the scope of the accounts not occur at the expense of funds needed to maintain, update, and improve the existing GDP accounts.” Money can’t buy happiness. But it could perhaps buy the ability to measure it. So we need to improve social indicators to make society happy. This study is conducted to explore how economic development and happiness is interrelated to each other and that help many countries in their planning, strategies and policies to overcom...

Going beyond GDP: theoretical approaches

Handbook of Research on Economic and Social Well-Being

Handbook of research on economic and social well-being reflecting on the need to include citizens and stakeholders in the identification of the indicators to be used to go 'beyond GDP' if we aspire to measure what may have some democratic legitimacy. We then present the developments of the international debate in the last decade and the most relevant initiatives taken in the field of measuring national well-being. We conclude by highlighting the existing international convergence on the need of a broader set of national objectives represented by the debate over the Sustainable Development Goals.

Wellbeing as an Alternative to GDP?

HAPSc Policy Briefs Series, 2024

Gross domestic product is the most commonly used measure of development, both in academia as well as wider society discourse. It describes the material production of a society within the course of a calendar year. While useful in informing policy and business decisions it is markedly limited by its one-dimensional nature. Well-being on the other hand rather than being the absence of illness is instead a long-term condition that allows an individual or group to flourish and perform well within society. Ensuring that public policy reflects this has been a central tent of modern economics post-1990 (Quick, 2020). Today, governing authorities and economists are increasingly using tools such as 'happiness' upon which to base spending and policy decisions. The main question that arises is not whether GDP is a perfect indicator of a country's economic progress but whether it is the best approach to judge a country's overall prosperity and well-being. In this paper we explore GDP and well-being, the risk that this valuable economic metric is under as well as GDP alternatives

Beyond GDP: The need for new measures of progress

2009

Abstract This paper is a call for better indicators of human well-being in nations around the world. We critique the inappropriate use of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of national well-being, something for which it was never designed. We also question the idea that economic growth is always synonymous with improved well-being.

(Material) Well-being in Economics: Beyond GDP

Happiness and Wellness: Biopsychosocial and Anthropological Perspectives [Working Title]

This chapter examines the current notion of well-being utilized in the mainstream economics, which is based on the utilitarian philosophy. The analysis focuses on the alternative proposals to expand beyond the existing framework, such as Easterlin’s paradox, multidimensional indexes of well-being, capabilities approach, and the cosmovision of the indigenous traditions. The chapter first explores the main definition of happiness and equilibrium of ancient Greek philosophers. Secondly, the chapter investigates the mainstream corpus of Economics with the Utilitarianism as a moral core. Many contradictions and inconsistencies in the implementation of the notion of well-being are unfolded. Thirdly, key proposals to revolutionize the notion are introduced. Given the sociological and environmental problems the Anthropocene has caused, and these ideas could lead to original and inspiring solutions.

Beyond Gdp: Conceptual Grounds of Quantification. The Case of the Index of Economic Well-Being (IEWB

2011

Today, though the need for new indicators of progress is broadly recognized, no consensus has arisen on a successor to GDP. Various -often conflicting -quantification options are observed. On one side, one finds those who want to improve current indicators, by completing or adjusting them, within the logic from which they have emerged. On the other are those for whom new indicators of progress are liable, if well-designed, to catalyze a transition toward a new model of society, less reliant on growth. Up to now, these axiological issues related to quantification choices, though crucial for "what we measure affects what we do", are scattered among the debates and do not appear clearly to the stakeholders to the debates. Our paper aims therefore to offer a more systematic understanding of the normative impacts of generic quantification choices. To that end, we analyse the Index of Economic Well-Being (IEWB). Though this index is an example of creativeness at a given time, its lack of success in the public sphere leads us to further investigate the coherence between its foundations and its purpose(s). For each dimension of this composite indicator, the analysis -which is intended to be easily transposed to other indicators -sheds light on the variety of normative implications resulting from its conceptual and methodological apparatus. This concomitantly leads us to question in depth the relevance of some theoretical hypotheses underlying the IEWB to coherently account for economic, social and ecological issues. The paper's conclusion suggests that alternative conceptual frameworks, such as ecological economics and the capability approach, are liable to carry more coherent indicators of progress.