Beyond GDP: The Need for New Measures of Progress
Beyond GDP: The Need for New Measures of Progress
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超越 GDP：需要新的进步衡量标准
DOI：
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发表时间：
2009
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
J. Talberth
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
R. Costanza;M. Hart;Stephen M. Posner;J. Talberth
本文呼吁世界各国制定更好的人类福祉指标。我们批评不恰当地使用国内生产总值（GDP）作为衡量国家福祉的标准，这是它从未被设计过的。我们还质疑经济增长总是与改善福祉同义的观点。衡量进步和福祉的有用尺度必须是衡量社会目标（即，可持续地提供食物、住所、自由、参与等人类基本需求）而不是仅仅衡量市场经济活动的数量，后者只是达到这一目的的一种手段。各种替代品和补充国内生产总值的讨论，其动机，目标和局限性。其中一些是对经济活动的修订措施，而另一些则衡量社区资本的变化-自然，社会，人类和内置试图衡量发展在多大程度上耗尽了社区资本的原则，而不是依靠其利益。我们的结论是，已经做了很多有益的工作，许多替代指标已成功地用于各级社区规划。但是，继续滥用GDP作为衡量幸福的指标，意味着需要立即、积极和持续地改变决策者用来指导政策和评估进展的指标。我们需要能够促进真正可持续发展的指标-这种发展能够提高人类生活质量，同时又不超出支持性生态系统的承受能力。最后，我们呼吁就实现这一新的社会目标的适当新进展措施达成共识。
Abstract This paper is a call for better indicators of human well-being in nations around the world. We critique the inappropriate use of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of national well-being, something for which it was never designed. We also question the idea that economic growth is always synonymous with im-proved well-being. Useful measures of progress and well-being must be measures of the degree to which society’s goals (i.e., to sustainably provide basic human needs for food, shelter, freedom, participation, etc.) are met, rather than mea-sures of the mere volume of marketed economic activity, which is only one means to that end. Various alternatives and complements to GDP are discussed in terms of their motives, objectives, and limitations. Some of these are revised measures of economic activity while others measure changes in community capital—natu-ral, social, human, and built—in an attempt to measure the extent to which development is using up the principle of community capital rather than living off its interest. We conclude that much useful work has been done; many of the alternative indicators have been used successfully in various levels of community planning. But the continued misuse of GDP as a measure of well-being neces-sitates an immediate, aggressive, and ongoing campaign to change the indica-tors that decision makers are using to guide policies and evaluate progress. We need indicators that promote truly sustainable development—development that improves the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of the supporting ecosystems. We end with a call for consensus on appropriate new measures of progress toward this new social goal.