TY - JOUR
T1 - Beyond GDP
T2 - Measuring and achieving global genuine progress
AU - Kubiszewski, Ida
AU - Costanza, Robert
AU - Franco, Carol
AU - Lawn, Philip
AU - Talberth, John
AU - Jackson, Tim
AU - Aylmer, Camille
PY - 2013/9
Y1 - 2013/9
N2 - While global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has increased more than three-fold since 1950, economic welfare, as estimated by the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), has actually decreased since 1978. We synthesized estimates of GPI over the 1950-2003 time period for 17 countries for which GPI has been estimated. These 17 countries contain 53% of the global population and 59% of the global GDP. We compared GPI with Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Human Development Index (HDI), Ecological Footprint, Biocapacity, Gini coefficient, and Life Satisfaction scores. Results show a significant variation among these countries, but some major trends. We also estimated a global GPI/capita over the 1950-2003 period. Global GPI/capita peaked in 1978, about the same time that global Ecological Footprint exceeded global Biocapacity. Life Satisfaction in almost all countries has also not improved significantly since 1975. Globally, GPI/capita does not increase beyond a GDP/capita of around $7000/capita. If we distributed income more equitably around the planet, the current world GDP ($67. trillion/yr) could support 9.6. billion people at $7000/capita. While GPI is not the perfect economic welfare indicator, it is a far better approximation than GDP. Development policies need to shift to better account for real welfare and not merely GDP growth.
AB - While global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has increased more than three-fold since 1950, economic welfare, as estimated by the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), has actually decreased since 1978. We synthesized estimates of GPI over the 1950-2003 time period for 17 countries for which GPI has been estimated. These 17 countries contain 53% of the global population and 59% of the global GDP. We compared GPI with Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Human Development Index (HDI), Ecological Footprint, Biocapacity, Gini coefficient, and Life Satisfaction scores. Results show a significant variation among these countries, but some major trends. We also estimated a global GPI/capita over the 1950-2003 period. Global GPI/capita peaked in 1978, about the same time that global Ecological Footprint exceeded global Biocapacity. Life Satisfaction in almost all countries has also not improved significantly since 1975. Globally, GPI/capita does not increase beyond a GDP/capita of around $7000/capita. If we distributed income more equitably around the planet, the current world GDP ($67. trillion/yr) could support 9.6. billion people at $7000/capita. While GPI is not the perfect economic welfare indicator, it is a far better approximation than GDP. Development policies need to shift to better account for real welfare and not merely GDP growth.
KW - Beyond GDP
KW - Biocapacity
KW - Ecological Footprint
KW - Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI)
KW - Gini coefficients
KW - Global progress
KW - Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
KW - Happiness
KW - Human Development Index (HDI)
KW - Life Satisfaction
KW - Well-being
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84878459339&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2013.04.019
DO - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2013.04.019
M3 - Article
SN - 0921-8009
VL - 93
SP - 57
EP - 68
JO - Ecological Economics
JF - Ecological Economics
ER -