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Australia's Genuine Progress Indicator Revisited (1962–2013)

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  • Kenny, Daniel C.
  • Costanza, Robert
  • Dowsley, Tom
  • Jackson, Nichelle
  • Josol, Jairus
  • Kubiszewski, Ida
  • Narulla, Harkiran
  • Sese, Saioa
  • Sutanto, Anna
  • Thompson, Jonathan

Abstract

The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) has been proposed as an alternative to GDP as an indicator of national progress. GPI includes 26 components that adjust GDP for inequality, include household and volunteer work, and subtract a number of social and environmental costs best seen as negatives. The GPI has been estimated for over 20 countries and many states and territories. This paper updates Australia's GPI to determine whether Australia as a nation has progressed overall since the 1960s and compares two alternative approaches that differ in some important details. We find that despite these differing approaches, we find that GPI remained largely stagnant from the 1960s through to the 1990s, and only at the turn of the century has GPI started to increase, despite increasing negative environmental costs.

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  • Kenny, Daniel C. & Costanza, Robert & Dowsley, Tom & Jackson, Nichelle & Josol, Jairus & Kubiszewski, Ida & Narulla, Harkiran & Sese, Saioa & Sutanto, Anna & Thompson, Jonathan, 2019. "Australia's Genuine Progress Indicator Revisited (1962–2013)," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 1-10.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:158:y:2019:i:c:p:1-10
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2018.11.025
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    Cited by:

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    2. Fassina, Caroline & Jarvis, Diane & Tavares, Silvia & Coggan, Anthea, 2022. "Valuation of ecosystem services through offsets: Why are coastal ecosystems more valuable in Australia than in Brazil?," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    3. Jonas Van der Slycken & Brent Bleys, 2020. "Cost-shifting Versus “Full” Accountability: Dealing with Cross-time and Cross-boundary Issues in the ISEW and GPI. An application to Belgium," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 20/1003, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    4. Fox, Mairi-Jane V. & Erickson, Jon D., 2020. "Design and meaning of the genuine progress indicator: A statistical analysis of the U.S. fifty-state model," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    5. Jonas Slycken & Brent Bleys, 2023. "Towards ISEW and GPI 2.0: Dealing with Cross-Time and Cross-Boundary Issues in a Case Study for Belgium," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 168(1), pages 557-583, August.
    6. Tatyana Ponomarenko & Marina Nevskaya & Oksana Marinina, 2020. "An Assessment of the Applicability of Sustainability Measurement Tools to Resource-Based Economies of the Commonwealth of Independent States," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-20, July.
    7. Lazarus, Elias & Brown, Clair, 2022. "Improving the genuine progress indicator to measure comparable net welfare: U.S. and California, 1995–2017," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 202(C).
    8. Cook, David & Davíðsdóttir, Brynhildur, 2021. "An estimate of the Genuine Progress Indicator for Iceland, 2000–2019," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    9. Van der Slycken, Jonas & Bleys, Brent, 2020. "A Conceptual Exploration and Critical Inquiry into the Theoretical Foundation(s) of Economic Welfare Measures," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    10. David Cook & Brynhildur Davíðsdóttir & Ingunn Gunnarsdóttir, 2022. "A Conceptual Exploration of How the Pursuit of Sustainable Energy Development Is Implicit in the Genuine Progress Indicator," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-23, March.
    11. Shashank Vikram Pratap Singh & V. K. Shrotryia, 2022. "Income Inequality and Human Wellbeing: An Empirical Analysis Using Atkinson Measure of Inequality," Emerging Economy Studies, International Management Institute, vol. 8(2), pages 116-128, November.
    12. Jonas Van der Slycken & Brent Bleys, 2021. "Towards ISEW and GPI 2.0, part I: developing two alternative measures of economic welfare with distinct time and boundary perspectives for Belgium," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 21/1026, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    13. Ji, Xi & Wu, Guowei & Su, Pinyi & Luo, Xuanyuan & Long, Xianling, 2022. "Does legislation improvement alleviate the decoupling between welfare and wealth in China?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    14. V. K. Shrotryia & Shashank Vikram Pratap Singh, 2020. "Measuring Progress Beyond GDP: A Theoretical Perspective," Emerging Economy Studies, International Management Institute, vol. 6(2), pages 143-165, November.
    15. Van der Slycken, Jonas & Bleys, Brent, 2024. "Is Europe faring well with growth? Evidence from a welfare comparison in the EU-15 (1995–2018)," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    16. Kibria, Abu S.M.G. & Costanza, Robert & Gasparatos, Alexandros & Soto, José, 2022. "A composite human wellbeing index for ecosystem-dependent communities: A case study in the Sundarbans, Bangladesh," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    17. Usubiaga-Liaño, Arkaitz & Ekins, Paul, 2024. "Methodological choices for reflecting strong sustainability in composite indices," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 221(C).

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