Measuring What Counts

The Global Movement for Well-Being

Joseph E. Stiglitz

• Publisher: The New Press
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9781620975701
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Economics

A bold agenda for a better way to assess societal well-being, by three of the world's leading economists and statisticians

"If we want to put people first, we have to know what matters to them, what improves their well-being, and how we can supply more of whatever that is."
—Joseph E. Stiglitz

In 2009, a group of economists led by Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz, French economist Jean-Paul Fitoussi, and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen issued a report challenging gross domestic product (GDP) as a measure of progress and well-being. Published as Mismeasuring Our Lives by The New Press, the book sparked a global conversation about GDP and a major movement among scholars, policy makers, and activists to change the way we measure our economies.

Now, in Measuring What Counts, Stiglitz, Fitoussi, and Martine Durand—summarizing the deliberations of a panel of experts on the measurement of economic performance and social progress hosted at the OECD, the international organization incorporating the most economically advanced countries—propose a new, "beyond GDP" agenda. This book provides an accessible overview of the last decade's global movement, sparked by the original critique of GDP, and proposes a new "dashboard" of metrics to assess a society's health, including measures of inequality and economic vulnerability, whether growth is environmentally sustainable, and how people feel about their lives. Essential reading for our time, it also serves as a guide for policy makers and others on how to use these new tools to fundamentally change the way we measure our lives—and to plot a radically new path forward.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• Preface
• Foreword
• Overview
• 1. The Continued Importance of the “Beyond GDP” Agenda
• 2. The Measurement of Economic Downturns
• 3. The Need to Follow Up on the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Commission
• 4. Country-Experiences with Using Well-Being Indicators to Steer Policies
• 5. Twelve Recommendations on the Way Ahead in Measuring Well-Being
• Annex: Taking Stock of Progress in the “Beyond GDP” Measurement Agenda Since the 2009 Commission Report
• Notes
• Bibliography
• High-Level Expert Group on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress
• Copyright