Genuine progress indicator

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GDP vs GPI in US.jpg

Genuine progress indicator (GPI) is a metric that has been suggested to replace, or supplement, gross domestic product (GDP). [1] The GPI is designed to take fuller account of the well-being of a nation, only a part of which pertains to the size of the nation's economy, by incorporating environmental and social factors which are not measured by GDP. For instance, some models of GPI decrease in value when the poverty rate increases. [2] The GPI separates the concept of societal progress from economic growth.

Contents

The GPI is used in ecological economics, "green" economics, sustainability and more inclusive types of economics. It factors in environmental and carbon footprints that businesses produce or eliminate, including in the forms of resource depletion, pollution and long-term environmental damage. [2] GDP is increased twice when pollution is created, since it increases once upon creation (as a side-effect of some valuable process) and again when the pollution is cleaned up; in contrast, GPI counts the initial pollution as a loss rather than a gain, generally equal to the amount it will cost to clean up later plus the cost of any negative impact the pollution will have in the meantime. While quantifying costs and benefits of these environmental and social externalities is a difficult task, "Earthster-type databases could bring more precision and currency to GPI's metrics." [2] It has been noted that such data may also be embraced by those who attempt to "internalize externalities" by making companies pay the costs of the pollution they create (rather than having the government or society at large bear those costs) "by taxing their goods proportionally to their negative ecological and social impacts". [2]

GPI is an attempt to measure whether the environmental impact and social costs of economic production and consumption in a country are negative or positive factors in overall health and well-being. By accounting for the costs borne by the society as a whole to repair or control pollution and poverty, GPI balances GDP spending against external costs. GPI advocates claim that it can more reliably measure economic progress, as it distinguishes between the overall "shift in the 'value basis' of a product, adding its ecological impacts into the equation". [2] :Ch. 10.3 Comparatively speaking, the relationship between GDP and GPI is analogous to the relationship between the gross profit of a company and the net profit; the net profit is the gross profit minus the costs incurred, while the GPI is the GDP (value of all goods and services produced) minus the environmental and social costs. Accordingly, the GPI will be zero if the financial costs of poverty and pollution equal the financial gains in production of goods and services, all other factors being constant.

Motivations

Some economists assess progress in people's welfare by comparing the gross domestic product over time—that is, by adding up the annual dollar value of all goods and services produced within a country over successive years. However, GDP was not intended to be used for such purpose. It is prone to productivism or consumerism, over-valuing production and consumption of goods, and not reflecting improvement in human well-being. It also does not distinguish between money spent for new production and money spent to repair negative outcomes from previous expenditure. For example, it would treat as equivalent one million dollars spent to build new homes and one million dollars spent in aid relief to those whose homes have been destroyed, despite these expenditures arguably not representing the same kind of progress. This is relevant for example when considering the true costs of development that destroys wetlands and hence exacerbates flood damages. Simon Kuznets, the inventor of the concept of GDP, noted in his first report to the US Congress in 1934:

the welfare of a nation can scarcely be inferred from a measure of national income. [3]

In 1962, he also wrote:

Distinctions must be kept in mind between quantity and quality of growth, between costs and returns, and between the short and long run... Goals for more growth should specify more growth of what and for what. [4]

Some[ who? ] have argued that an adequate measure must also take into account ecological yield and the ability of nature to provide services, and that these things are part of a more inclusive ideal of progress, which transcends the traditional focus on raw industrial production.

Theoretical foundation

The need for a GPI to supplement indicators such as GDP was highlighted by analyses of uneconomic growth in the 1980s, notably that of Marilyn Waring, who studied biases in the UN System of National Accounts.[ citation needed ]

By the early 1990s, there was a consensus in human development theory and ecological economics that growth in money supply was actually reflective of a loss of well-being: that shortfalls in essential natural and social services were being paid for in cash and that this was expanding the economy but degrading life.[ citation needed ]

The matter remains controversial and is a main issue between advocates of green economics and neoclassical economics. Neoclassical economists understand the limitations of GDP for measuring human well-being but nevertheless regard GDP as an important, though imperfect, measure of economic output and would be wary of too close an identification of GDP growth with aggregate human welfare. However, GDP tends to be reported as synonymous with economic progress by journalists and politicians, and the GPI seeks to correct this shorthand by providing a more encompassing measure.

Some economists, notably Herman Daly, John B. Cobb [5] and Philip Lawn, [6] have asserted that a country's growth, increased goods production, and expanding services have both costs and benefits, not just the benefits that contribute to GDP. They assert that, in some situations, expanded production facilities damage the health, culture, and welfare of people. Growth that was in excess of sustainable norms (e.g., of ecological yield) had to be considered to be uneconomic. According to the "threshold hypothesis", developed by Manfred Max-Neef, "when macroeconomic systems expand beyond a certain size, the additional benefits of growth are exceeded by the attendant costs" (Max-Neef, 1995). This hypothesis is borne out in data comparing GDP/capita with GPI/capita from 17 countries. The graph demonstrates that, while GDP does increase overall well-being to a point, beyond $7,000 GDP/capita the increase in GPI is reduced or remains stagnant. [7] Similar trends can be seen when comparing GDP to life satisfaction as well as in a Gallup Poll published in 2008. [8]

According to Lawn's model, the "costs" of economic activity include the following potential harmful effects: [9]

Analysis by Robert Costanza also around 1995 of nature's services and their value showed that a great deal of degradation of nature's ability to clear waste, prevent erosion, pollinate crops, etc., was being done in the name of monetary profit opportunity: this was adding to GDP but causing a great deal of long term risk in the form of mudslides, reduced yields, lost species, water pollution, etc. Such effects have been very marked in areas that suffered serious deforestation, notably Haiti, Indonesia, and some coastal mangrove regions of India and South America. Some of the worst land abuses for instance have been shrimp farming operations that destroyed mangroves, evicted families, left coastal lands salted and useless for agriculture, but generated a significant cash profit for those who were able to control the export market in shrimp. This has become a signal example to those who contest the idea that GDP growth is necessarily desirable.

GPI systems generally try to take account of these problems by incorporating sustainability: whether a country's economic activity over a year has left the country with a better or worse future possibility of repeating at least the same level of economic activity in the long run. For example, agricultural activity that uses replenishing water resources, such as river runoff, would score a higher GPI than the same level of agricultural activity that drastically lowers the water table by pumping irrigation water from wells.

Income vs. capital depletion

Hicks (1946) pointed out that the practical purpose of calculating income is to indicate the maximum amount that people can produce and consume without undermining their capacity to produce and consume the same amount in the future. From a national income perspective, it is necessary to answer the following question: "Can a nation's entire GDP be consumed without undermining its ability to produce and consume the same GDP in the future?" This question is largely ignored in contemporary economics but fits under the idea of sustainability.

In legislative decisions

The best-known[ dubious discuss ] attempts to apply the concepts of GPI to legislative decisions are probably the GPI Atlantic, [10] an index, not an indicator, invented by Ronald Colman for Atlantic Canada, who explicitly avoids aggregating the results obtained through research to a single number, alleging that it keeps decisions makers in the dark; the Alberta GPI [11] created by ecological economist Mark Anielski to measure the long-term economic, social and environmental sustainability of the province of Alberta and the "environmental and sustainable development indicators" used by the Government of Canada to measure its own progress to achieving well-being goals.

The Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators program is an effort to justify state services in GPI terms.[ citation needed ] It assigns the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, an officer in the Auditor-General of Canada's office, to perform the analysis and report to the House of Commons. However, Canada continues to state its overall budgetary targets in terms of reducing its debt to GDP ratio, which implies that GDP increase and debt reduction in some combination are its main priorities.

In the European Union (EU) the Metropole efforts and the London Health Observatory methods are equivalents focused mostly on urban lifestyle.

The EU and Canadian efforts are among the most advanced in any of the G8 or OECD nations,[ citation needed ] but there are parallel efforts to measure quality of life or standard of living in health (not strictly wealth) terms in all developed nations. This has also been a recent focus of the labour movement.

Calculation

The calculation of GPI presented in the simplified form is the following:

GPI = A + B - C - D + I

A is income weighted private consumption

B is value of non-market services generating welfare

C is private defensive cost of natural deterioration

D is cost of deterioration of nature and natural resources

I is increase in capital stock and balance of international trade

The GPI indicator is based on the concept of sustainable income, presented by economist John Hicks (1948). The sustainable income is the amount a person or an economy can consume during one period without decreasing his or her consumption during the next period. In the same manner, GPI depicts the state of welfare in the society by taking into account the ability to maintain welfare on at least the same level in the future.

Components

The Genuine Progress Indicator is measured by 26 indicators which can be divided into three main categories: Economic, Environmental, and Social. Some regions, nations, or states may adjust the verbiage slightly to accommodate their particular scenario. [12] For example, the GPI template uses the phrase "Carbon Dioxide Emissions Damage" whereas the state of Maryland uses "Cost of Climate Change" [13] because it also accounts for other greenhouse gases (GHG) such as methane and nitrous oxide.

+/-Indicator [14] Brief explanation
Economic
+Personal Consumption ExpendituresThe bulk of GDP as well, consumption informs the baseline from which the rest of the indicators will be added or subtracted.
÷Income InequalityUsing the Gini index, published by World Bank, and the Income Distribution Index (IDI), its relative change over time.
(PCE/IDI)*100Adjusted Personal ConsumptionFormula=(Personal consumption/IDI) x 100. Forms the base number from which the remaining indicators are added or subtracted.
-Cost of Consumer Durables Calculated as a cost to avoid double counting the value provided by the durables themselves.
+Value of Consumer Durables Household appliances, cars, etc. are not used up in one year and are considered a part of household capital. Their value is depreciated over a number of years.
-Cost of UnderemploymentEncompasses the chronically unemployed, discouraged workers, involuntary part-time workers and others with work-life restraints (lack of childcare or transportation).
+/-Net Capital InvestmentCapital investment in foreign markets minus incoming investments from other countries. If lending (+) if borrowing (-).
Environmental
-Cost of Water Pollution Damage to water quality from things such as chemicals or nutrients, and the costs of erosion/sedimentation in waterways.
-Cost of Air Pollution Includes damage to vegetation, degradation of materials, cost of clean-up from soot or acid rain, and resulting reduced property values, wage differentials and aesthetics.
-Cost of Noise Pollution Noise from traffic and factories can cause hearing loss and sleep deprivation.
-Loss of Wetlands Valuates the services given up when wetlands are lost to development i.e. buffering of weather, habitat, water purification.
-Loss of farmland, soil quality or degradation Due to urbanization, soil erosion and compaction. This indicator is measured cumulatively to account for all years of production lost as it compromises self-sufficient food supply.
-Loss of Primary Forest and damage from logging roads Loss of biodiversity, soil quality, water purification, carbon sequestration, recreation etc. Cumulative affect year over year.
- CO2 Emissions Increases in severe weather is causing billions in damages. A value of US$93/metric ton of CO2 emitted is used, based on a meta-analysis study by Richard Tol (2005) of 103 separate studies of costs of economic damages.
-Cost of Ozone Depletion Our protective layer in the atmosphere. Depletion can lead to increased cases of cancer, cataracts and plant decline. Weighed at US$49,669/ton
-Depletion of Non-RenewablesThese cannot be renewed in a lifetime. Depletion is measured against cost of implementing and substituting with renewable resources.
Social
+Value of Housework and ParentingChild care, repairs and maintenance are valued equivalent to the amount a household would have to pay for the service.
-Cost of Family ChangesSocial dysfunction presents itself early in family life. Care is taken to avoid double counting goods and services duplicated due to split-parent households.
-Cost of CrimeMedical expenses, property damages, psychological care and security measures to prevent crime are all included in this indicator.
-Cost of Household Pollution AbatementCost to residents to clean the air and water in their own household i.e. air and water filters.
+Value of Volunteer WorkValued as a contribution to social welfare. Neighborhoods and communities can find an informal safety net through their peers and volunteer work.
-Loss of Leisure TimeCompared to 1969 hours of leisure. Recognizes that increased output of goods and services can lead to loss of valuable leisure time for family, chores or otherwise.
+Value of Higher EducationAccounts for the contribution resulting knowledge, productivity, civic engagement, savings, and health; a "social spillover," set to $16,000 per year.
+Value of Highways and StreetsAnnual value of services contributed from the use of streets & highways. Valued at 7.5% of net stock of local, state and federal highways.
-Cost of CommutingMoney spent to pay for the transportation and time lost in transit as opposed to other more enjoyable activities.
-Cost of Auto AccidentsDamage and loss as a result of traffic accidents. Increased traffic densities are a direct result of industrialization and wealth accumulation.

Development in the United States

Non-profit organizations and universities have measured the GPI of Vermont, Maryland, Colorado, Ohio, and Utah. These efforts have incited government action in some states. As of 2014, Vermont, Maryland, Washington and Hawai'i have passed state government initiatives to consider GPI [15] in budgeting decisions, with a focus on long-term cost and benefits. Hawai'i's GPI spans the years from 2000 to 2020 and will be updated annually. [16]

In 2009, the state of Maryland formed a coalition of representatives from several state government departments in search of a metric that would factor social well-being into the more traditional gross product indicators of the economy. The metric would help determine the sustainability of growth and economic progress against social and environmental factors typically left out of national indicators. The GPI was chosen as a comprehensive measure of sustainability as it has a well-accepted scientific methodology that can be adopted by other states and compared over time. [17] Maryland's GPI trends are comparable to other states and nations that have measured their GPI in that gross state product (GSP) and GPI have diverged over the past four decades where GSP has increased more rapidly than GPI. While economic elements of GPI have increased overall (with a significant drop off during the Great Recession), social well-being has stagnated, with any values added being cancelled out by costs deducted, and environmental indicators, while improving slightly, are always considered costs. Combined, these elements bring the GPI below GSP. [18] However, Maryland's GPI did increase by two points from 2010 to 2011. [19]

The calculation methodology of GPI was first developed and published in 1995 by Redefining Progress and applied to US data from 1950 to 1994. [20] The original work on the GPI in 1995 was a modification of the 1994 version of the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare in Daly and Cobb. Results showed that GDP increased substantially from 1950 to 1994. Over the same period, the GPI stagnated. Thus, according to GPI theory, economic growth in the US, i.e., the growth of GDP, did not increase the welfare of the people over that 44 year period. So far, GPI time-series have been calculated for the US and Australia as well as for several of their states. In addition, GPI has been calculated for Austria, Canada, Chile, France, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Scotland, and the rest of the UK.

Development in Finland

The GPI time-series 1945 to 2011 for Finland have been calculated by Statistics Finland. The calculation closely followed the US methodology. The results show that in the 1970s and 1980s economic growth, as measured by GDP, clearly increased welfare, measured by the GPI. After the economic recession of the early-1990s the GDP continued to grow, but the GPI stayed on a lower level. This indicates a widening gap between the trends of GDP and GPI that began in the early-1990s. In the 1990s and 2000s the growth of GDP has not benefited the average Finn. If measured by GPI, sustainable economic welfare has actually decreased due to environmental hazards that have accumulated in the environment. The Finnish GPI time series [21] have been updated by Dr Jukka Hoffrén at Statistics Finland.

Within EU's Interreg IV C FRESH Project (Forwarding Regional Environmental Sustainable Hierarchies) GPI time-series were calculated to Päijät-Häme, Kainuu and South-Ostrobotnia (Etelä-Pohjanmaa) regions in 2009–2010. [22] During 2011 these calculations were completed with GPI calculations for the Lappland, Northern Ostrobothnia (Pohjois-Pohjanmaa) and Central-Ostrobothnia (Keski-Pohjanmaa) regions.

Criticism

GPI considers some types of production to have a negative impact upon being able to continue some types of production. GDP measures the entirety of production at a given time. GDP is relatively straightforward to measure compared to GPI. Competing measures like GPI define well-being, which are arguably impossible to define. Therefore, opponents of GPI claim that GPI cannot function to measure the goals of a diverse, plural society. Supporters of GDP as a measure of societal well-being claim that competing measures such as GPI are more vulnerable to political manipulation. [23]

Finnish economists Mika Maliranta and Niku Määttänen write that the problem of alternative development indexes is their attempt to combine things that are incommensurable. It is hard to say what they exactly indicate and difficult to make decisions based on them. They can be compared to an indicator that shows the mean of a car's velocity and the amount of fuel left.

They add that it indeed seems as if the economy has to grow in order for the people to even remain as happy as they are at present. In Japan, for example, the degree of happiness expressed by the citizens in polls has been declining since the early 1990s, the period when Japan's economic growth stagnated. [24]

Supporting countries and groups

GPI and GPI-type studies completed

Indicator nameRegionBeginning year of studyEnd year of studyYear of publicationAuthors
MEW -(A/S)United States of America192919651972Nordhaus and Tobin
ISEWUnited States of America19511986, 19921989, 1994Daly and Cobb
ISEWGermany195019901994Diefenbacher
ISEWScotland, United Kingdom198019911994Moffatt and Wilson
ISEWNetherlands195019921995Oegema and Rosenberg
ISEWNetherlands195019921995Rosenberg, Oegema, Bovy
ISEWSweden195019921996Jackson and Stymne
ISEWAustria195519921997Stockhammer et al.
ISEWUnited Kingdom195019961997Jackson, et al.
ISEWAustria195519921997Stockhammer, Hochreiter, Obermayr, Steiner
ISEWItaly196019911998Giogio Guenno, Silvia Tiezzi
ISEWChile196519951999Castañeda
GPIUnited States of America195019941995Cobb, Halstead, Rowe
GPIUnited States of America195019961999Cobb, Goodman, Wackernagel
GPIAustralia195019961999Clive Hamilton
SNBIAustralia196619671999Lawn and Sanders
SNBIAustralia199419951999Lawn and Sanders
ISEWScotland, United Kingdom198019931999Hanley
GPIAustralia195020002000Hamilton and Dennis
GPIMinnesota196019952000Minnesota Planning Agency
GPIAlberta, Canada196119992001Mark Anielski
ISEWCzech Republic198819982002Scasny
ISEWPoland198019972003Gil and Sleszynski
ISEWWales, United Kingdom199020002003Matthews, Williams, Roberts, Munday
GPIUnited States of America195020022004Venetoulis and Cobb
GPISan Francisco Bay Area200020002004Venetoulis and Cobb
GPIVermont: Chittenden County and Burlington 195020002004Costanza, Erickson et al.
ISEWThailand197519992005Matthew Clarke, Sardar M.N. Islam
GPIColombia197620032006Sánchez et al.
GPIUnited States of America195020042006John Talberth, Clifford Cobb, and Noah Slattery
ISEWSiena, Italy199919992006Pulselli, Ciampalini, Tiezzi, Zappia
ISEWBelgium197020002006Brent Bleys
GPIVictoria, Australia198620032006Clarke and Lawn
ISEWMexico199320052007Castillo López A.
ISEWNetherlands197120042007Brent Bleys
IBES/ISEWPuerto Rico197020062007Alameda-Lozada and Diaz-Rodriguez
GPIChina (4 regions)199120012007Zongguo Wen, Kunmin Zhanf, Bin Du, Yadong Li, Wei Li
GPINorthern Vermont (7 counties)195020002007Bagstad and Ceroni
ISEWBelgium197020042008Brent Bleys
R-ISEWEngland (regions)199420052008Tim Jackson, Nat McBride, Saamah Abdallah and Nic Marks
ISEWFrance199020022008Nourry
ISEWModena and Rimini, Italy??2008Pulselli, F.M., Tiezzi, E., Marchettini, N., Bastiononi, S.
GPIIndia198720032008Ed: Philip Lawn and Matthew Clarke (Book)
GPIAustralia196720062008Ed: Philip Lawn and Matthew Clarke (Book)
GPINew Zealand197020052008Ed: Philip Lawn and Matthew Clarke (Book)
GPIJapan197020032008Ed: Philip Lawn and Matthew Clarke (Book)
GPIChina197020052008Ed: Philip Lawn and Matthew Clarke (Book)
GPIThailand197520042008Ed: Philip Lawn and Matthew Clarke (Book)
GPIVietnam199220042008Ed: Philip Lawn and Matthew Clarke (Book)
Edmonton Wellbeing IndexEdmonton, Canada198120082009Anielski and Johannessen
ISEWTuscany, Italy197120062009Pulselli, F., Bravi, M., Tiezzi, E.
GPIUkraine200020072010Danilishin & Veklich
ISEWEcuador200120102011ANDRÉS PAÚL CORDERO SANMARTÍN
GPIUtah199020072011Berik, G. and E. Gaddis
GPIBaltimore City, County, and the State of Maryland195020052011Posner, S. and R. Costanza
GPIVermont196020102011Zencey, Eric, Sebastian Castro, Marigo Farr, Mark Isselhardt, Brian Kelly, Katharine Lucas, Julie Nash, Matt Pescatore, Meagan Pharis, Vinson Pierce, Tarah Rose, Daniel Sanchez, Aaron Witham, Zach Zimmerman.
GPIMaryland195020042012MacGuire, S., S. Posner, H. Haake
ISEWNetherlands197020102012Bob van Moerkerk
GPINorthern Ohio199020052012Kenneth Bagstad and Md Rumi Shammin
ISEWFlanders, Belgium199020092013Brent Bleys
GPIVermont196020112013Jon D. Erickson, Eric Zencey, Matthew J. Burke, Sam Carlson, and Zachary Zimmerman
GPIAustria195519922013Kubiszewski, Costanza, Franco, Lawn, Talberth, Jackson, Aylmer
GPIBelgium197020052013Kubiszewski, Costanza, Franco, Lawn, Talberth, Jackson, Aylmer
GPINetherlands195019922013Kubiszewski, Costanza, Franco, Lawn, Talberth, Jackson, Aylmer
GPIPoland198019982013Kubiszewski, Costanza, Franco, Lawn, Talberth, Jackson, Aylmer
GPIItaly196019902013Kubiszewski, Costanza, Franco, Lawn, Talberth, Jackson, Aylmer
GPISweden195019922013Kubiszewski, Costanza, Franco, Lawn, Talberth, Jackson, Aylmer
GPIUnited Kingdom195020012013Kubiszewski, Costanza, Franco, Lawn, Talberth, Jackson, Aylmer
GPIUnited States195020052013Kubiszewski, Costanza, Franco, Lawn, Talberth, Jackson, Aylmer
GPIChile195019922013Kubiszewski, Costanza, Franco, Lawn, Talberth, Jackson, Aylmer
GPIAustralia196520062013Kubiszewski, Costanza, Franco, Lawn, Talberth, Jackson, Aylmer
GPINew Zealand197020052013Kubiszewski, Costanza, Franco, Lawn, Talberth, Jackson, Aylmer
GPIChina197020062013Kubiszewski, Costanza, Franco, Lawn, Talberth, Jackson, Aylmer
GPIIndia198520032013Kubiszewski, Costanza, Franco, Lawn, Talberth, Jackson, Aylmer
GPIJapan197020032013Kubiszewski, Costanza, Franco, Lawn, Talberth, Jackson, Aylmer
GPIThailand197520052013Kubiszewski, Costanza, Franco, Lawn, Talberth, Jackson, Aylmer
GPIVietnam199020052013Kubiszewski, Costanza, Franco, Lawn, Talberth, Jackson, Aylmer
GPIGlobal195020052013Kubiszewski, Costanza, Franco, Lawn, Talberth, Jackson, Aylmer
ISEWTuscany and Marche, Italy199920092013Chelli, Ciommi, Gigliarano
GPIMaryland196020132014Hans Haake
GPIHawaii200020202022Regina Ostergaard-Klem, Kirsten Oleson
GPIColorado196020112014Chris Stiffler
ISEWFlanders, Belgium199020122014Brent Bleys
GPIWashington196020152014Siefer Amber & Rossman Jamie
GPIKrasnoyarsk Krai, Russia200520112014Pyzhev, Pyzheva & Zander
GPIBrazil197020102015Daniel Caixeta Andrade, Junior Ruiz Garcia
GPIHong Kong196820102015Claudio O Delang (Book)
GPISingapore196820102015Claudio O Delang (Book)
GPIMassachusetts196020122015Jon D. Erickson, Eric Zencey, and Zachary Zimmerman
GPIOregon196020102015Ida Kubiszewski, Robert Costanza, Nicole E. Gorko, Michael A. Weisdorf, Austin W. Carnes, Cathrine E. Collins, Carol Franco, Lillian R. Gehres, Jenna M. Knobloch, Gayle E. Matson, Joan D. Schoepfer
ISEWGreece200020122015Angeliki Menegaki and Konstantinos Tsagarakis
ISEWFlanders, Belgium199020142016Brent Bleys
GPIMissouri200020142016Zencey, Eric
ISEWFlanders, Belgium199020152017Brent Bleys
GPIUS, 50 States201020112017Mairi-Jane Fox
GPILiaoning, China197820112017Yu Hou
ISEWSpain199520142017Ignacio Rodriguez Rodriguez
GPICalifornia201020142018Brown and Lazarus
ISEWTurkey200120122018Angeliki Menegaki
N/RWIGermany, Bavaria, Hamburg, North Rhine/Westphalia, Rhineland-Palantinate, Saxonia, Thuringia199120142018Held, Rodenhäuser, Diefenbacher, Zieschank
ISEWSpain197020122018Tadhg O'Mahony, Paula Escardó-Serra, Javier Dufour
SWIItaly196020142018Mirko Armiento
ISEWLuxembourg196020102018Benedetto Rugani, Antonino Marvuglia, Federico Maria Pulselli
GPIVermont200020152018Eric Zencey
GPIOhio200920162018Rob Moore
GPI & ISEWFinland194520172018Hoffren
GPI & ISEW19 regions, Finland196020172018Hoffren
GPI10 Chinese megacities (Beijing, Tianjin, Nanjing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Chengdu, Xi'an, Wuhan, Shenyang), China199x201x2018Lu Huang
ISEWFlanders, Belgium199020162018Brent Bleys, Jonas Van der Slycken
GPIIceland200020162018Anna Balafina
GPIAustralia196220132019Kenny et al.
GPI31 provinces, China199720162019Xianling Long, Xi Ji
GPIChina199720162019Xianling Long, Xi Ji
GPI28 OECD countries1995(*)2015(*)2019Pais, Alfonso, Marques, Fuinhas
GPISouth Korea and Malaysia198020142019Mastura Hashim, Azhar Mohamad, Imtiaz Mohammad Sifat
GPISouth Australia198620162019Philip Lawn
ISEWRomania199020172019Butnariu & Luca
ISEWFlanders199020172019Brent Bleys, Jonas Van der Slycken
GPINew Zealand197020162019Patterson et al.
GPI21 cities in the Rust Belt, United States199020152019LaToya S. Moten
ISEWEcuador200120152020Sanchez et al.
GPIOhio200920182020Rob Moore
GPINorth Carolina200520182020Juhi Modi
NWIGermany199120182020Held, Rodenhäuser, Diefenbacher
ISEWFlanders199020182020Brent Bleys, Jonas Van der Slycken
GPI Rio de Janeiro state in Brazil200220162021Senna G.N. and Serra E.G.
GPIIceland200020192021David Cook and Brynhildur Davíðsdóttir
GPIChina and 29 provinces201620162021Guan, Weng, Zhao, Lin, Zhang and Tu
GPIUnited States of America, and California199520172022Eli Lazarus and Clair Brown
ISEW/GPIBelgium199520182023Jonas Van der Slycken, Brent Bleys
ISEW/GPIEU-15 and its Member States 199520182024Jonas Van der Slycken, Brent Bleys

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare</span> Economic indicator

The Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) is an economic indicator intended to replace the gross domestic product (GDP), which is the main macroeconomic indicator of System of National Accounts (SNA). Rather than simply adding together all expenditures like the GDP, consumer spending is balanced by such factors as income distribution and cost associated with pollution and other unsustainable costs. The calculation excludes defence expenditures and considers a wider range of harmful effects of economic growth. It is similar to the genuine progress indicator (GPI).

Net national product (NNP) is gross national product (GNP), i.e. the total market value of all final goods and services produced by the factors of production of a country or other polity during a given time period, minus depreciation. Similarly, net domestic product (NDP) is gross domestic product (GDP) minus depreciation. Depreciation describes the devaluation of fixed capital through wear and tear associated with its use in productive activities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Environmental good</span> Non-market public goods

Environmental goods are typically non-market goods, including clean air, clean water, landscape, green transport infrastructure, public parks, urban parks, rivers, mountains, forests, and beaches. Environmental goods are a sub-category of public goods. Concerns with environmental goods focus on the effects that the exploitation of ecological systems have on the economy, the well-being of humans and other species, and on the environment. Users not having to pay an upfront cost and external factors like pollution that can damage environmental goods indefinitely are some of the challenges in protecting environmental goods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Happy Planet Index</span> Index of human well-being and environmental impact

The Happy Planet Index (HPI) is an index of human well-being and environmental impact that was introduced by the New Economics Foundation in 2006. Each country's HPI value is a function of its average subjective life satisfaction, life expectancy at birth, and ecological footprint per capita. The exact function is a little more complex, but conceptually it approximates multiplying life satisfaction and life expectancy and dividing that by the ecological footprint. The index is weighted to give progressively higher scores to nations with lower ecological footprints.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Human Development Report</span>

The National Human Development Reports (NHDR) take the Global Human Development Report approach to the national level and are prepared and owned by national teams. More than 540 national and sub-national HDRs have been produced so far by 135 countries, in addition to 31 regional reports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Where-to-be-born Index</span> Index by the Economist Intelligence Unit

The where-to-be-born index, formerly known as the quality-of-life index (QLI), was last published by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in 2013. Its purpose was to assess which country offered the most favorable conditions for a healthy, secure, and prosperous life in the years following its release.

The green national product is an economic metric that seeks to include environmental features such as environmental degradation and resource depletion with a country's national product.

Sustainability metrics and indices are measures of sustainability, using numbers to quantify environmental, social and economic aspects of the world. There are multiple perspectives on how to measure sustainability as there is no universal standard. Intead, different disciplines and international organizations have offered measures or indicators of how to measure the concept.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gender Parity Index</span> Socioeconomic index

UNESCO defined the Gender Parity Index (GPI) as a socioeconomic index usually designed to measure the relative access to education of males and females. It is used by international organizations particularly in measuring the progress of developing countries. For example, some UNESCO documents consider gender parity in literacy.

Urban theory describes the economic, political and social processes which affect the formation and development of cities.

The OECD Better Life Index, created in May 2011 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, is an initiative pioneering the development of economic indicators which better capture multiple dimensions of economic and social progress.

Wikiprogress is a defunct online platform for sharing information on the measurement of social, economic and environmental progress. It is thought to facilitate sharing on ideas, initiatives and knowledge on "measuring the progress of societies". Like Wikipedia, it was open to all members and communities for contribution – anyone interested in "progress" could register.

Although for many decades, it was customary to focus on GDP and other measures of national income, there has been growing interest in developing broad measures of economic well-being. National and international approaches include the Beyond GDP programme developed by the European Union, the Better Lives Compendium of Indicators developed by the OECD, as well as many alternative metrics of wellbeing or happiness. One of the earliest attempts to develop such an index at national level was Bhutan's Gross National Happiness Index and there are a now a number of similar projects ongoing around the world, including a project to develop for the UK an assessment of national well-being, commissioned by the Prime Minister David Cameron and led by the Office for National Statistics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social Progress Index</span>

The Social Progress Index (SPI) measures the extent to which countries provide for the social and environmental needs of their citizens. Fifty-four indicators in the areas of basic human needs, foundations of well-being, and opportunity to progress show the relative performance of nations. The index is published by the nonprofit Social Progress Imperative, and is based on the writings of Amartya Sen, Douglass North, and Joseph Stiglitz. The SPI measures the well-being of a society by observing social and environmental outcomes directly rather than the economic factors. The social and environmental factors include wellness, equality, inclusion, sustainability and personal freedom and safety.

Natural capital accounting is the process of calculating the total stocks and flows of natural resources and services in a given ecosystem or region. Accounting for such goods may occur in physical or monetary terms. This process can subsequently inform government, corporate and consumer decision making as each relates to the use or consumption of natural resources and land, and sustainable behaviour.

References

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Further reading

News articles

Scientific articles and books