L'ISEW applicato alla Lombardia: pregi, limiti e indicazioni di policy

An ISEW application to Lombardy: merits, limits and policy implications - This study analyses the evolution of well-being in Lombardy for the period 2000-2004. Methods and Results In order to measure well-being in Lombardy we used the ISEW (Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare) in the version produced by the New Economics Foundation. The ISEW is an index derived from a series of corrections and amendments to GDP, made with the aim of obtaining a comprehensive measurement which takes into account income distribution, environmental sustainability, and wealth stocks, and is immediately comparable with the indicator of regional income. Economic quantification of the components of the ISEW necessitated the use of discrete methodologies, in particular for determining the shadow prices of resources. The results also depend at least in part on these discretional elements. Over the period studied the ISEW for Lombardy was found to outperform per capita GDP, though this performance was not evenly distributed across all the components considered. Conclusions The analysis shows that economic growth achieved during 2000-2004 was not at the expense of sustainability; on the contrary, the development model looked carefully at the most crucial factors affecting sustainability itself. The study concludes by presenting some considerations on the possible use of this index for monitoring the impacts of regional policies. JEL: I31, R11