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.

#21

Today I have had an article writing day, with work done in relation to the article "Kan velferd og miljø måles i forlengelsen av BNP?" (literally: Can welfare and environment be measured as an extension of GDP?) which I have co-written with Jan Karlstrøm and which is currently under consideration in Samfunn og økonomi. In the process I added some 200 words to the manuscript. Moreover, I did some work related to an interview that Federico Comollo has conducted with Michael Marder and me.

This brings the number of writing days this Autumn up to 21 including 6,5 article writing days.

#32,5

Today I have had an article writing day, with work done on the article "Kan velferd og miljø måles i forlengelsen av BNP?" which I co-write with Jan Karlstrøm. The article has now been submitted to Tidsskrift for samfunnsforskning.

So far this Autumn I have had 32,5 writing days including 14,5 article writing days.

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.

#45

Today I have had an article writing day, #45 this Spring, with some work done on revising the article "Kan velferd og miljø måles i forlengelsen av BNP?" (Can welfare and the environment be measured in extension of GDP?) which I am co-writing with Jan Karlstrøm. 

See also:

Article "What Arne Næss can teach us about the interdisciplinary nature of economics" published; mention in editorial

"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.

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.

***

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.