Grow first, develop later? The pitfalls of measuring economic growth using GDP (original) (raw)

Nobel Prize winner Simon Kuznets, widely credited for proposing the idea of GDP decades ago, noted GDP considers only economic production and not human well-being. Sadly, people routinely conflate the two, with troubling consequences that focus on economic outputs to the detriment of social and environmental issues. Take United States. During 2008–2019, it has the longest period of economic expansion in history. Despite this growth, it is now experiencing highest levels of economic inequality in 50 years, enduring a prolonged opioid crisis, increasing suicide rates, and declining lifespans for many sectors of society. Winners of GDP horse race attract foreign investment and command greater geopolitical attention. In India, Narendra Modi rode to power promising higher GDP growth. Its 7% GDP growth rate was later said by its former Chief Economic Advisor to be an overestimate by 2%. China is facing similar questions of its quality of economic development and overestimation of its GDP growth. See our views on GDP and importance of complementing it with other substantive indices on #sustainability and #social and #environmental progress. See our analysis.