Thursday 16 January 2020

Abstract for ISQOLS 2020: Wasted and wasteful growth in the USA

Yesterday I finished and submitted the abstract below for the 18th Annual Conference of the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS 2020), to be held in Rotterdam in August.

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Wasted and wasteful growth in the USA

If the purpose of economic growth is to improve human welfare, then assessments should be made as to whether or not growth in fact contributes to improved welfare. By investigating Gross Domestic Product (GDP)/Gross National Income (GNI), Human Development Index (HDI) and inequality data, this article evaluates to what extent economic growth in the United States of America (USA) has benefited its population since 1990, the year in which HDI was launched. Comparisons are made with the Nordic countries. These are about as rich as the USA, but known for an alternative model of development, the Nordic welfare model, which is known for being focused on equality and equal opportunities. A notion of wasted growth, defined as real GDP/GNI per capita growth not accompanied by improved non-income Human Development, is introduced. Furthermore, the phenomenon of wasteful growth, understood as GDP/GNI per capita growth that only results in marginal improvements in non-income Human development, is investigated. The investigation is performed by looking into the components of HDI, namely average income, life expectancy and number of school years, and by comparing nonincome HDI values with GDP/GNI per capita growth rates. I further calculate nonincome IHDI values, i.e. inequality-adjusted nonincome Human Development values, for the period covered, to look into what difference inequality makes in evaluations of wasted and wasteful growth. The rather mediocre HDI performance of the USA in recent years begs the question: Is US growth wasted on the rich?

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