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Lytton Advisory

GDP Caution

Here’s another fun fact about economics: In the mid-20th century, the economist Simon Kuznets, who developed the concept of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), originally cautioned against using GDP as a measure of a country’s overall well-being. Kuznets emphasized that GDP only measures economic activity and does not account for the distribution of income, environmental factors, or the non-market activities that contribute to quality of life. Despite his warnings, GDP has become the most widely used indicator of economic performance, leading to ongoing debates about its adequacy in capturing the true health of a nation’s economy. It can feel like we are only just catching on.

#economics #gdp
Image credit: Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Pix4free

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