|
Q. I strongly believe that such indicators as GDP, GDP per capita, National Income, Disposable Income etc. show to some extent the level of economic and social development of a country. However, they do not take into account the fractionation of the society and hardly distinguish the corporate welfare from personal.
|
|
A. The issue of measuring the "progress" of a society was the key issue discussed during the recent OECD World Forum held in Istanbul at the end of June (see www.oecd.org/oecdworldforum). Of course, there are different views about what progress means, depending on different economic, cultural and historical conditions. Anyway, there is a growing consensus that it is not possible to build a single indicator able to encompass all dimensions of progress (or quality of life, welfare, etc., all terms often used to indicate similar things). It is better, instead, to build a set of indicators, covering different dimensions, from income to health, from education to environment, etc. including some subjective dimensions (such as happiness of life satisfaction).
|