GDP as the champion of measurements

Mark Esposito and Terence Tse

World Economics, 2015, vol. 16, issue 1, 18-30

Abstract: This paper considers the importance of measurement in complex societies and notes that the concept of measuring macroeconomic variables such as GDP was grounded in the impact of the 1929 Wall Street Crash on America. Simon Kuznets, a Harvard economist, produced a report for the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) which was published in 1934. Despite warnings of the limitations of GDP, its use has expanded to include government expenditures while to Kuznets government activities were an intermediate service and not part of final output. This paper considers particular inadequacies in using GDP as a measure of welfare when it includes, prison funding, natural disaster relief or expenditure on big sports events. The paper also argues that we should move beyond GDP while still recognizing its benefits as an organized methodology. Climate change, environmental disasters and international terrorism, transcend the assumption that economic growth is all we need. It concludes that an index capable of measuring social progress, independent from economic activity is needed.

Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.worldeconomics.com/Journal/Papers/Article.details?ID=605 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wej:wldecn:605

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in World Economics from World Economics, 1 Ivory Square, Plantation Wharf, London, United Kingdom, SW11 3UE
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ed Jones ().