Measuring What Counts: The Global Movement for Well-Being

Joseph E. Stiglitz

The New Press, Nov 19, 2019 - Business & Economics - 257 pages

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.

Contents

• 1 The Continued Importance of the Beyond GDP Agenda: 1
• 2 The Measurement of Economic Downturns: 36
• 3The Need to Follow Up on the StiglitzSenFitoussi Commission: 61
• 4 CountryExperiences with Using WellBeing Indicators to Steer Policies: 133
• 5 Twelve Recommendations on the Way Ahead in Measuring WellBeing: 152
• Taking Stock of Progress in the Beyond GDP Measurement Agenda Since the 2009 Commission Report: 159
• Notes: 185
• Bibliography: 201
• HighLevel Expert Group on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress: 215

About the author

Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics, is university professor at Columbia University and chief economist at the Roosevelt Institute. He is the author of The Stiglitz Report and a co-author of Mismeasuring Our Lives. He lives in New York City. Jean-Paul Fitoussi is professor emeritus at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (SciencesPo), Paris, and professor at LUISS Guido Carli University, Rome. He is a co-author of Mismeasuring Our Lives and a co-editor of For Good Measure. He lives in Paris. Martine Durand is the chief statistician and director of statistics of the OECD. She is a co-editor of For Good Measure. She lives in Paris.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Measuring What Counts: The Global Movement for Well-Being
• Author: Joseph E. Stiglitz
• Publisher: The New Press, 2019
• ISBN: 162097570X, 9781620975701
• Length: 257 pages
• Subjects: Business & Economics / Globalization; Business & Economics / Money & Monetary Policy; Political Science / Public Policy / Economic Policy; Political Science / Public Policy / Social Policy