Beyond GDP input given to UN via Spanish government; now available on UN´s Beyond GDP webpage

In late August I sumbitted input to the "Beyond GDP" initiative in the UN system, which was coordinated by the government of Spain. My written input (2 pages), titled "Beyond GDP input", is now available at the UN´s Beyond GDP page under "Documents and reports" - see "Download Non-Member States ZIP file" and locate the file "Morten Tønnessen_Beyond GDP Input" there.

Paper on GDP and alternative measures presented at ISQOLS 2024 in Malaysia

Yesterday I presented the paper “Can welfare and environmental concerns be measured in extension of GDP?” (see abstract posted earlier) on behalf of Jan Karlstrøm and myself at the 22nd conference of the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS), which was held in Kota Kinabula, on Borneo, in Malaysia, June 26 to 28th. The paper was part of Session 23C, “Beyond GDP: New Understandings and Measures of Progress”. Some 45 people attended the session.

Photo: Sabah International Convention Centre, the ISQOLS 2024 venue.

Paper "Can welfare and environmental concerns be measured in extension of GDP?" scheduled for presentation June 28th at ISQOLS 2024

The paper "Can welfare and environmental concerns be measured in extension of GDP?", developed by Jan Karlstrøm and me, has been scheduled for oral presentation at ISQOLS 2024, the 22nd annual conference of International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS), which is to be held in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, June 25-28th. Our paper will be presented on Friday June 28th at 15.30, as part of session 23C "Beyond GDP: New Understandings and Measures of Progress".

"Kan velferd og miljø måles i forlengelsen av BNP?" rejected by Samfunnsøkonomen

A few days ago, our article "Kan velferd og miljø måles i forlengelsen av BNP?" was rejected by Samfunnsøkonomen.

"Wasted GDP in the USA" reached 10.000 Article accesses

My article "Wasted GDP in the USA", published last October, has now reached 10.000 Article accesses. This is the quickest any of my articles have reached that many reads.

Abstract for ISQOLS 2024: "Can welfare and environmental concerns be measured in extension of GDP?"

I have just submitted the abstract below to the organizers of the 2024 conference of the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS), which will be held in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, June 24-28th.

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Can welfare and environmental concerns be measured in extension of GDP?  

Morten Tønnessen, Professor of Philosophy, Department of Social Sciences, University of Stavanger 

Jan Karlstrøm, Research assistant, Department of Social Sciences, University of Stavanger  

What the purpose of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is as a measure of economic activity has been debated ever since the term was launched and adopted in the 1930s. In this paper we go through the history of the concept of GDP, the criticism GDP has been met with, and proposed alternatives to GDP. Originally, GDP was constructed based on a need for more overview and a better basis for planned government management of the economy during the Depression and the Second World War. In the post-war period, GDP growth became a central political goal in and of itself. Even though from the very beginning it has been pointed out that GDP is not intended as a measure of welfare, GDP growth has constantly been associated with welfare development. Modern criticism of GDP as a measure of the state of the economy and social development has largely addressed the fact that GDP is poorly suited as a measure of welfare and that the target of GDP growth is unfortunate given the environmental consequences of increasing production and consumption. Several alternative measures of welfare development and environmental concerns have been launched, but none of them have succeeded in becoming as central as GDP. The new measure that has gained the most traction, namely the UN's Human Development Index, has incorporated GDP rather than replaced GDP. We look at alternatives for measuring welfare, alternatives that address environmental concerns, and alternatives that address both welfare and environmental concerns and evaluate these critically.

#33,5; article "Kan velferd og miljø måles i forlengelsen av BNP?" submitted to Samfunnsøkonomen

Over the last three days I have altogether conducted half a writing day, with some work done on my contribution to Encyclopedia of Ecology, updates received concerning the book Mars and the Earthlings and, indirectly, my book project Captured. Today I finally finished editing the article "Kan velferd og miljø måles i forlengelsen av BNP" (Can welfare and environment be measured in extension of GDP?), which I have co-written with Jan Karlstrøm, and which I just submitted to the Norwegian academic journal Samfunnsøkonomen.

The number of completed writing days this Autumn is now 33,5.