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Well‐Being, Front and Center: A Note on the Sarkozy Report
Author(s) -
Easterlin Richard A.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
population and development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.836
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1728-4457
pISSN - 0098-7921
DOI - 10.1111/j.1728-4457.2010.00320.x
Subject(s) - commission , sustainability , welfare , economics , front (military) , production (economics) , sustainable development , public economics , political science , positive economics , development economics , macroeconomics , law , mechanical engineering , ecology , biology , engineering
The Sarkozy Report is a study commissioned by the French President on better ways to measure the level and progress of societal well‐being than conventional economic indicators such as GDP. Despite being prepared by prominent economists—the commission was led by Joseph Stiglitz, Amartya Sen, and Jean‐Paul Fitoussi—the Report rejects reliance on “production‐oriented” measures of progress in favor of a broader array of quality‐of‐life indicators, some of them subjective, and measures of the sustainability of well‐being into the future. These multiple dimensions of well‐being, it argues, should be used in policy decisions and welfare evaluations. The views expressed in the Report may portend a sea‐change in the way economists think about the benefits of economic growth.