Boskin’s article in the Wall Street Journal is worth reading and outlines how politicians have been seeking to change statistical collections to achieve better results. Fortunately most people can see through such charades.
I have a significant concern that the wellbeing framework (which comprises the triple bottom line of economic, environmental and social) promoted by the Sarkozy Commission including Stiglitz will result in meaningless, symbolic statistics.
It would be nice to directly measure utility, but the Sarkozy approach is in the wrong direction. The status quo – national accounts with GDP etc – remains the most useful such statistic until an alternative is proven to be superior.
all those “Quality of life” metrics are corrupted by personal viewpoints about how people should live.
daddy dave
24 Feb 10 at 10:51 pm