Moving Beyond GDP: The case for wealth as a core measure of national progress

If GDP growth is weak—or, worse, negative—things are said to be going poorly, and intervention to change course will be called for. GDP was not designed for this purpose, though, and there are many reasons why increasing GDP is not correlated with increased well-being. GDP fixation leads decision-makers to favour policies with narrow economic benefits for those alive today, even if those policies undermine well-being in the long run. 

While agreement is growing that countries must move beyond GDP and adopt new measures of progress, just what those measures should be remains a matter of debate. Among the handful of credible alternatives to GDP is inclusive wealth—a powerful measure of sustainability. Inclusive wealth comprises the assets that underlie human well-being: natural, human, social, produced, and financial capital. Despite this, no government today measures inclusive wealth.

This seminar will explore adoption of inclusive wealth as a means of moving beyond GDP. Eminent speakers will explain what inclusive wealth is, how it relates to the sustainability of well-being, and how government policies would differ if inclusive wealth, rather than GDP, occupied the centre of decision-makers' dashboards. 

Moderator: Pedro Conceição, Director, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme.

Opening note:

• Lynn Wagner, Senior Director at International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)

Keynote presentation:

• Diane Coyle, Professor, Bennett Professor of Public Policy, University of Cambridge

Panellists:

• Bambang Brodjonegoro, Lead Co-Chair, T20 Indonesia and Professor, Universitas Indonesia
• Pushpam Kumar, Chief Environmental Economist and Senior Economic Advisor, UN Environment Programme
• Erin Tansey, Director, Sustainable Inclusive Economies Program, International Development Research Centre