The measurement of economic performance and social progress revisited: Reflections and Overview

In February 2008, the President of the French Republic, Nicholas Sarkozy, unsatisfied with the present state of statistical information about the economy and the society, asked, Joseph Stiglitz (President of the Commission), Amartya Sen (Advisor) and Jean Paul Fitoussi (Coordinator) to create a Commission, subsequently called “The Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress” (CMEPSP). The Commission’s aim has been to identify the limits of GDP as an indicator of economic performance and social progress, including the problems with its measurement, to consider what additional information might be required for the production of more relevant indicators of social progress, to assess the feasibility of alternative measurement tools, and to discuss how to present the statistical information in an appropriate way (...)

Retos en la medición del desempeño económico y social

Es común que los indicadores económicos y sociales sean criticados, calificán-dolos de incompletos y arbitrarios. Puede que, en verdad, lo sean. Pero aún reco-nociendo sus limitaciones, suministran información que ha ayudado a identificar y solucionar problemas relevantes del pasado. Hace 200 años, la expectativa de vida al nacer en el mundo no superaba los 40 años, ni siquiera en Holanda e Ingla-terra, los países más ricos de la época. Desde entonces, a pesar de enfermedades, hambrunas y guerras, la humanidad ha elevado su expectativa de vida a razón de tres meses anuales: hoy en muchos países la expectativa de vida al nacer se acerca a los 80 años. Ningún país del mundo tiene una esperanza de vida inferior a la de hace 200 años. Incluso en la República Democrática del Congo, el país más pobre del planeta, la gente vive más de 45 años (The Economist, 2011, p. 80-81)incluye referencias bibliográficas (página 247)

Indicadores de sustentabilidade

Esta descrição retrospectiva de um debate científico com quase 40 anos mostra a necessidade de uma trinca de novos indicadores de sustentabilidade capaz de avaliar simultaneamente resiliência ecossistêmica, qualidade de vida e desempenho econômico.This retrospective description of a scientific debate with almost 40 years shows the necessity of a set of three new sustainability indicators able to simultaneously evaluate the resilience of ecosystems, quality of life and economic performance

Vers de nouveaux systèmes de mesures : Performances économiques et progrès social

Nous voulons faire du PIB la mesure de toute chose -performance, bien-être, qualité de la vie, alors qu'il ne représente qu'une mesure de l'activité économiques marchande. Il est possible au contraire de construire des mesures fiables des déterminants matériels du bien-être, de la répartition des revenus, de la qualité de la vie, de la durabilité des évolutions en cours et de bien d'autres aspects de notre économie et de notre société

Report by the Commission on the measurement of economic performance and social progress

As GDP is a measure of market capacity and not economic well-being, this report has been commissioned to more accurately understand the social progress indicators of any given state.  Gross domestic product (GDP) is the most widely used measure of economic activity. There are international standards for its calculation, and much thought has gone into its statistical and conceptual bases. But GDP mainly measures market production, though it has often been treated as if it were a measure of economic well-being. Conflating the two can lead to misleading indications about how well-off people are and entail the wrong policy decisions.  One reason why money measures of economic performance and living standards have come to play such an important role in our societies is that the monetary valuation of goods and services makes it easy to add up quantities of a very different nature. When we know the prices of apple juice and DVD players, we can add up their values and make statements about production and consumption in a single figure. But market prices are more than an accounting device. Economic theory tells us that when markets are functioning properly, the ratio of one market price to another is reflective of the relative appreciation of the two products by those who purchase them. Moreover, GDP captures all final goods in the economy, whether they are consumed by households, firms or government. Valuing them with their prices would thus seem to be a good way of capturing, in a single number, how well-off society is at a particular moment. Furthermore, keeping prices unchanged while observing how quantities of goods and services that enter GDP move over time would seem like a reasonable way of making a statement about how society’s living standards are evolving in real terms.    As it turns out, things are more complicated. First, prices may not exist for some goods and services (if for instance government provides free health insurance or if households are engaged in child care), raising the question of how these services should be valued. Second, even where there are market prices, they may deviate from society’s underlying valuation. In particular, when the consumption or production of particular products affects society as a whole, the price that individuals pay for those products will differ from their value to society at large. Environmental damage caused by production or consumption activities that is not reflected in market prices is a well-known example. &nbsp