Engaging Decision-Makers in Moving Beyond GDP and Toward Wealth
-
Decision-making processes and rewards to decision-makers have been based on the short-term benefits driving GDP for many decades.
-
Until countries move beyond GDP and its short-term market focus, no serious answer to the question “Is our level of well-being sustainable?” will be possible.
-
A transition from GDP to comprehensive/inclusive wealth (C/IW) measures will require capacity building among decision-makers to help them understand the differences and uses of the two indices. Decision-makers will be better able to balance short-term imperatives with the long-term environmental, social, and economic determinants of well-being.
Decision-making processes and rewards to decision-makers have been based on the short-term benefits driving GDP for many decades. A transition from GDP to comprehensive/inclusive wealth (C/IW) measures will require capacity building among decision-makers to help them understand the differences and uses of the two indices. In addition, national statistical offices will need to begin measuring wealth in all its dimensions. Making these measures available alongside traditional indicators would lead to better, more sustainable outcomes. Decision-makers will be better able to balance short-term imperatives with the long-term environmental, social, and economic determinants of well-being.
You might also be interested in
Measuring Nature for Post-COVID-19 Economic Recovery
In the face of multiple health and environmental crises, the inefficiencies of GDP as the main measure of economic health and government policy are strikingly apparent.
Measuring the Wealth of Nations: A review
This paper provides a brief overview of recent efforts by international agencies and academic institutions to develop and apply comprehensive wealth measurement tools. Our review is limited to examples of comprehensive wealth measurement as applied to several countries, so it does not include work on specific capital estimates, applications to a small number of countries, or theoretical research/framework development.
Working with Countries to Move Beyond GDP
Any framework that goes beyond GDP to measure societal progress must be country owned.
Founder of Midsummer Analytics to speak at FSU’s South Asian Media and Cultural Studies Conference
Robert Smith, founder of Midsummer Analytics and a senior associate with the International Institute for Sustainable Development, will speak at Florida State University on Thursday, Feb. 2, about avenues to replace gross domestic product (GDP) as the central measure of a country’s progress.