The development of macroeconomic theory and the implications for economic policy is the main focus of this book. Coming together to honour Fitoussi, the contributors have pulled off an impressive coup in creating a book which will interest advanced students of macroeconomics, economists generally as well as those involved in the formulation of economic policy.
In 2009, a group of economists issued a report challenging gross domestic product (GDP) as a measure of progress and well-being. Now, in Measuring What Counts they - 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.
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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