Table. 2015 Inequality-adjusted HDI (IHDI) (2016 report ...



Is GDP obsolete? Alternative measures of economic and social progress Concept Note Gross National Product (GDP) started to be calculated by the statistical offices in the US and Europe only after the Second World War, and it is criticized virtually since the moment of its inception into the statistical practice. In the often cited speech of Robert Kennedy in the University of Kansas on March 18, 1968, he claimed that GDP “measures everything, except that which makes life worthwhile”.In 1990 the UNDP started the publication of Human Development Report, where the Human Development Index (HDI) was calculated. It was a simple non-weighted average of three normalized indicators – life expectancy, educational level and PPP GDP per capita. In recent years HDI is adjusted for inequality. In the list of countries with the highest HDI (table) we find the usual suspects (Scandinavian countries, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Australia, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Canada, UK, US), but also Ireland, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, which are nowhere near the top in the per capita GDP list of countries. Table. 2015 Inequality-adjusted HDI (IHDI) (2016 report, top countries)RankCountryIHDI1?Norway0.8982?Iceland0.8683?Australia0.8613?Netherlands0.8615??Switzerland0.8596?Germany0.8597?Denmark0.8588?Sweden0.8519?Ireland0.85010?Finland0.84311?Canada0.83912?Slovenia0.83813?United Kingdom0.83614?Czech Republic0.83015?Luxembourg0.82716?Belgium0.82117?Austria0.81518?France0.81319?United States0.79620?Slovakia0.793Source: Wikipedia. As the jubilee (50 years’ anniversary) report of the Club of Rome stated, “measuring our success on GDP growth has proven inadequate to the task and it also masks a growth in inequality between rich and poor. New indicators such as a Genuine Progress Indicator could more accurately measure economic welfare.This Genuine Progress Indicator is supposed to take into account the damage done by the depletion of resources and pollution of the environment, as well as social achievements.Bhutan started to conduct nationwide Gross National Happiness (GNH) surveys in 2008. In 2012, Bhutan and United Nations convened the?High Level Meeting: Well-being and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm?to encourage the spread of Bhutan's GNH philosophy.?At the High Level meeting, the first?World Happiness Report?was issued. The commission that included five Nobel laureates in economics concluded in 2009 that “the time is ripe for our measurement system to shift emphasis from measuring economic production to measuring people’s well-being”. It recommended to consider several dimensions of wellbeing: i. Material living standards (income, consumption and wealth); ii. Health; iii. Education; iv. Personal activities including work v. Political voice and governance; vi. Social connections and relationships; vii. Environment (present and future conditions); viii. Insecurity, of an economic as well as a physical nature. Today there is a large literature on shortcomings of GDP and a lot of proposals for alternative indicators of economic and social progress, but the issue is far from settled. Discussion points:There may be one justification for GDP computation: higher GDP per?capita may not bring more happiness or justice, but leads to a greater economic competitiveness.? Countries with higher GDP per capita are more competitive in the short run and can drive other countries out of business (make them economically bankrupt).? The result is that countries with greater justice and happiness (and higher?life expectancy, literacy, better ecology and environment,?lower crime, and better use of?resources, etc.) will disappear in the economic competition with the irresponsible countries that care only about GDP.? What are the alternative general indicators of performance and progress? How to best take into account the sustainable development concept? How (with what weights) to aggregate different goals of development to construct a general indicator? Happiness indices. If we find the empirical relationship between happiness and per capita income, life expectancy, educational attainment, crime, pollution, inequality and other indicators, should we replace GDP with the happiness indicator constructed out of these and other variables? Confirmed speakers:Vladimir Yakunin, chairman of DOC-RI Board of Directors, Pilling, Africa Editor, Financial Times (), Author of?The Growth Delusion?published in the UK by Bloomsbury January 25, 2018. In the US?The Growth Delusion?published by Tim Duggan Books January 30, 2018Fred Harrison, Director, Land Research Trust, London, Vladimir Popov, Professor, DOC-RI Research Director, Economics and Politics, . Dr. Philipp Schepelmann , Senior Research Fellow Energy, Transport and Climate Policy, Wuppertal Institute Pablo Ava, Head of Policy and Research, Argentina Council of Foreign Relations. Dr. Judith Shapiro, Undergraduate Tutor, Department of Economics ,“Taking GDP beyond the production boundary and its impact on gender bias in measurement” . Richard Werner, Professor of International Banking at the University of Southampton Simon Anholt, an independent policy advisor founder of the Good Country HYPERLINK "" ................
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