STOCKHOLM SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS Department of Economics 5350 Thesis in Economics Supervisor: Kelly Ragan Measuring Welfare An Alternative to GDP Birgit Altmann* May 15, 2013 Abstract: GDP per capita is generally used to compare welfare across countries and time. However, it faces significant limitations in serving as an appropriate welfare measure. Amongst others, GDP does not account for the distribution of wealth and omits important well-being determinants such as quantity and quality of life. In previous literature a consumption-equivalent model has been developed as an alternative welfare measure containing the factors life expectancy, consumption, leisure and inequality. The model is enhanced in this paper by incorporating the additional factors health and corruption. With this approach, living standards are compared across a broad set of countries both in levels and across time. The results show that for a significant proportion of countries this alternative welfare measurement differs substantially from the traditional GDP evaluation. For instance, life expectancy raises well-being in certain regions such as Western Europe, but considerably reduces welfare in Eastern Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa. In Latin America, inequality within countries is a crucial factor, whereas corruption is most detrimental in Africa. Welfare growth tends to be higher than income growth in the sample due to improvements in longevity, corruption and leisure time. Keywords: Welfare, well-being, living standards, alternative welfare measurement, GDP, comparative country studies JEL classification: D60, D63, I31, 057 Date of presentation: May 24, 2013 Examiner: Juanna Joensen Discussant: Carl Johan von Seth *
[email protected] Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor Kelly Ragan for her valuable advice and support throughout the entire course of writing this thesis.