Mismeasuring Our Lives: Why GDP Doesn't Add Up
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Books › Business & Economics › Economics › Theory
ISBN: 1595585192 / Publisher: New Pr, May 2010
In 2008, French President Nicolas Sarkozy prevailed upon Nobel Prize-winning economists Stiglitz and Sen, together with French economist Fitoussi, to establish a Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, tasked with assessing the usefulness of using Gross Domestic Product as the central indicator of economic and social progress and with proposing alternative measures. This volume contains the non-technical portions of the commission's report (the technical sections are available online). The discussion is organized into three sections that explore, in turn, standard issues of national income accounting such as measurement of output of government, adjustments for an open economy, and treatment of household production and leisure; measurement of quality of life and sense of well-being; and questions of environmental and economic stability. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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In February of 2008, amid the looming global financial crisis, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France asked Nobel Prize-winning economists Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen, along with the distinguished French economist Jean Paul Fitoussi, to establish a commission of leading economists to study whether Gross Domestic Product (GDP)—the most widely used measure of economic activity—is a reliable indicator of economic and social progress. The Commission was given the further task of laying out an agenda for developing better measures.Mismeasuring Our Lives is the result of this major intellectual effort, one with pressing relevance for anyone engaged in assessing how and whether our economy is serving the needs of our society. The authors offer a sweeping assessment of the limits of GDP as a measurement of the well-being of societies—considering, for example, how GDP overlooks economic inequality (with the result that most people can be worse off even though average income is increasing); and does not factor environmental impacts into economic decisions.In place of GDP, Mismeasuring Our Lives introduces a bold new array of concepts, from sustainable measures of economic welfare, to measures of savings and wealth, to a “green GDP.” At a time when policymakers worldwide are grappling with unprecedented global financial and environmental issues, here is an essential guide to measuring the things that matter.
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