A pragmatic approach to evaluate alternative indicators to GDP

L. Fasolo, M. Galetto () and E. Turina

Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, 2013, vol. 47, issue 2, 633-657

Abstract: The serious economic crisis broken out in 2008 highly stressed the limitations of GDP used as a well-being indicator and as a predictive tool for economy. This induced the need to identify new indicators able to link the economic prosperity of a country to aspects of sustainable development and externalities, both positive and negative, in the long run. The aim of this paper is to introduce a structured approach which supports the choice or the construction of alternative indicators to GDP. The starting point is the definition of what a well-being indicator actually should represent according to the Recommendations of the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Report on the measurement of economic performance and social progress. Then the paper introduces a systematic procedure for the analysis of well-being indicators. The different phases of this procedure entail the checking of indicators technical properties and their effect on the representational efficacy. Finally, some of the most representative well-being indicators drawn from the literature are compared and a detailed application example is proposed. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2013

Keywords: Quality of life indicator; Well-being indicator; Sustainability indicator; GDP; Indicator properties (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11135-011-9537-7

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