Beyond GDP: Well-being and Green Accounts

Dissatisfaction with GDP has produced a range of alternative measures. Bhutan made 'Gross National Happiness' a guiding principle, and its 2008 constitution directs the state to promote conditions for it. In 2009 the Stiglitz–Sen–Fitoussi Commission, set up by French president Nicolas Sarkozy, recommended focusing on household income and consumption, distribution, well-being surveys and sustainability. The OECD's Better Life Index lets users weigh housing, health, environment and community themselves, and some governments now publish well-being budgets.

Environmental accounting tries to record the depletion of forests, minerals and fish stocks, while 'genuine savings' measures ask whether a country is investing enough to replace the natural capital it uses. Supporters say these tools reveal trade-offs GDP hides; skeptics warn that subjective measures are hard to compare and that GDP's consistency is a strength. Most economists now see GDP as essential but insufficient.