Dr. John Talberth, Clifford Cobb, and Noah Slattery The Genuine Progress Indicator 2006 A Tool for Sustainable Development Date 2006 1904 Franklin Street Suite 600 / Oakland, CA 94612 T (510) 444.3041 F (510) 444.3191 E
[email protected] www.rprogress.org 2007© Redefining Progress About the Authors Dr. John Talberth is Director of the Sustainability Indica- tors Program at Redefining Progress; Cliff Cobb is a senior fellow at Redefining Progress; Noah Slattery is a research fellow at Redefining Progress. Redefining Progress 1904 Franklin Street 6th Floor Oakland, CA 94612 T (510) 444.3041 E
[email protected] www.rprogress.org To order more copies of THE GENUINE PROGRESS INDICATOR 2006: A TOOL FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, contact Redefining Progress or go to www.rprogress.org. February 2007 Dr. John Talberth, Clifford Cobb, and Noah Slattery The Genuine Progress Indicator 2006 A Tool for Sustainable Development CONTENTS 2. Evolution of the Genuine Progress Indicator Framework GDP has fundamental shortcomings. “GDP is not a 3. Theory, Principles and Critiques measure of welfare,” wrote William Nordhaus and James 8. An Updated GPI Methodology Tobin, prominent economists at Yale in the early 1970s 18. Results and Implications (Nordhaus and Tobin, 1972). The GDP is simply a gross 20. Using the GPI as a Guide to Public Policy tally of everything produced in the U.S.—products and 28. Concluding Thoughts and Future Refinements services, good things and bad. In fact, in a 1934 report to 29. References Congress GDP’s chief architect, Simon Kuznets, cautioned that “[t]he welfare of a nation can scarcely be inferred from a measurement of national income” (Kuznets, 1934).