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Beyond GDP and Back: What is the Value-added by Additional Components of Welfare Measurement?

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  • Schmidt, Christoph
  • Kassenboehmer, Sonja C

Abstract

Building on the Stiglitz report, a growing literature suggests to explore other aspects of human welfare apart from material well-being, such as job security, crime, health, environmental factors and subjective perceptions. To explore the additional information of these indicators, we analyze data on the macro level from the German Federal Statistical Office combined with micro level data from the German SOEP (1991-2008). Much of the variation in many well-being measures can indeed be captured well by GDP and the unemployment rate. These correlations are far from perfect, thus giving considerable hope that there is room for a broader statistical reporting.

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  • Schmidt, Christoph & Kassenboehmer, Sonja C, 2011. "Beyond GDP and Back: What is the Value-added by Additional Components of Welfare Measurement?," CEPR Discussion Papers 8225, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8225
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    Cited by:

    1. Delhey, Jan & Kroll, Christian, 2012. "A "happiness test" for the new measures of national well-being: How much better than GDP are they?," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Inequality and Social Integration SP I 2012-201, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    2. Christoph M. Schmidt & Nils aus dem Moore, 2014. "Wie geht es uns? Die W3-Indikatoren für eine neue Wohlstandsmessung," RWI Positionen, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, pages 16, 03.
    3. Olha Hlushchenko, 2016. "Well-being funding: essence and estimation method," RIVISTA DI STUDI SULLA SOSTENIBILITA', FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2016(2), pages 45-55.
    4. D.P. Doessel & Ruth F.G. Williams, 2012. "The New Welfare Measures," Working Papers 2012.07, School of Economics, La Trobe University.
    5. Olivier Bargain & André Decoster & Mathias Dolls & Dirk Neumann & Andreas Peichl & Sebastian Siegloch, 2013. "Welfare, labor supply and heterogeneous preferences: evidence for Europe and the US," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 41(4), pages 789-817, October.
    6. Johannes Hirata, 2012. "Zum systematischen Stellenwert von Wirtschaftswachstum: Ziel, Mittel oder weder noch?," RatSWD Working Papers 198, German Data Forum (RatSWD).
    7. repec:zbw:rwipos:056 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Petar Mitić & Olja Munitlak Ivanović & Aleksandar Zdravković, 2017. "A Cointegration Analysis of Real GDP and CO 2 Emissions in Transitional Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-18, April.
    9. Bofinger, Peter & Buch, Claudia M. & Feld, Lars P. & Schmidt, Christoph M. & Wieland, Volker, 2013. "Gegen eine rückwärtsgewandte Wirtschaftspolitik. Jahresgutachten 2013/14 [Against a backward-looking economic policy. Annual Report 2013/14]," Annual Economic Reports / Jahresgutachten, German Council of Economic Experts / Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung, volume 127, number 201314.
    10. Erich Oltmanns & Albert Braakmann & Joachim Schmidt, 2014. "Monitoring Subjective Well-Being: Some New Empirical Evidence for Germany," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 696, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    11. Jörg Döpke & Andreas Knabe & Cornelia Lang & Philip Maschke, 2017. "Multidimensional Well-being and Regional Disparities in Europe," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(5), pages 1026-1044, September.
    12. Schmidt, Christoph M. & aus dem Moore, Nils, 2014. "Wie geht es uns? Die W3-Indikatoren für eine neue Wohlstandsmessung," RWI Positionen 56, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung.
    13. da Silva Francisco, António A., 2017. "‘Gerontogrowth’ and population ageing in Africa and the Global AgeWatch Index," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 9(C), pages 78-89.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Beyond gdp; Happiness; Sen; Stiglitz; Sustainability; Welfare measurement;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General
    • E01 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts
    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General

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