Date of Award
2019
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Economics
First Advisor
Monica Das
Abstract
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is one of the most well-known and used economic indicator to measure the strength and size of an economy. However, too often the assumption is made that the higher the GDP of a country, the better off the people are. Using GDP to measure the wellbeing can lead to the unwanted consequence of a reduction in well-being by economic policies being made to further expand GDP. Because of this, another indicator is needed to measure the well-being of an economy. The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) attempts to measure wellbeing by taking into account both economic activity which benefits society and those which hurt it. By dividing economic activity into benefits and costs, instead of treating any and all activity as a positive, like GDP, GPI provides a better picture of well-being and can help to drive economic policy in ways that GDP fails to do.
Recommended Citation
Erickson, James, "Achieving Genuine Progress: An Exploration of the Well-being Increasing and Decreasing Components of Economic Activity" (2019). Economics Student Theses and Capstone Projects. 135.
https://creativematter.skidmore.edu/econ_studt_schol/135