Economic growth

Although economists routinely use GDP and other national income and product statistics in their research, there is debate among economists about the appropriateness of GDP as a measure of well-being—and even disputes about whether or not we are really better off if we have more goods and services?

Key questions:

• Is GDP a good measure of our economic well being?
• What has been done in recent years to improve GDP statistics?
• Should GDP take into account environmental issues, distributional issues, and health and welfare issues?
• How specifically can GDP be adjusted to better measure well being?

For arguments why we would be better off with a simpler lifestyle. See: http://www.simpleliving.net/default.asp

On the advantages of economic growth, look at reports from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Their annual reports can be found at: http://dallasfed.org/fed/annual/index.html

For discussion of GDP and other measures of income and output by the US Department of Commerce, see the Bureau of Economic Analysis www.bea.gov.

For criticisms of GDP as a measure of well being see the United Nations Development Program Human Development Report at http://hdr.undp.org/hd/default.cfm for alternative indicators for individual countries (ranging from life expectancy to personal computers in use).

For an alternative to GDP see Redefining Progress (a private organization) Genuine Progress Indicator at http://www.rprogress.org/projects/gpi/

For discussion of the environment and economic growth see Resources for the Future at http://www.rff.org/.