Measuring the Kind of Australia We Want: The Australian National Development Index, the Gross Domestic Product and the Global Movement to Redefine Progress
In: The Australian economic review, Band 46, Heft 1, S. 78-91
ISSN: 1467-8462
AbstractThere is a growing global movement to re‐define progress beyond gross domestic product (GDP) and develop new measures of equitable and sustainable well‐being. GDP's shortcomings as the chief measure of societal progress have been clearly exposed, but it is still widely used in this role, with increasingly adverse consequences. This article examines the lessons from this global movement and the technical and democratic requirements for developing new national progress measures. It focuses on a new Australian project, the Australian National Development Index, which will develop a composite index of national progress and key progress 'domains' through a national community engagement process supported by a cross‐disciplinary research program.