No.
But it can be used that way if that is all one looks at. Barkley Rosser -----Original Message----- From: chang <chang at public.shenzhen.cngb.com> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Date: Friday, September 03, 1999 7:43 PM Subject: Re: GDP is unscientific and unfair for poor people.
>Barkley Rosser,
>Do you agree that GDP as a measurement of the whole economy condition is
>unscientific and unfair for poor people? Is GDP for the rich to hoodwink
poor
>people's eyes?
>
>Sincerely,
>Ju-chang He
>
>SHENZHEN, P.R. CHINA
>Welcome to My Homepage
><http://sites.netscape.net/juchang/>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. <rosserjb at jmu.edu>
>To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
>Date: Saturday, September 04, 1999 3:41 AM
>Subject: Re: GDP is unscientific and unfair for poor people.
>
>
>>Ju-Chang,
>> Some economists have attempted to come up
>>with other measures. About 20 years ago, William
>>Nordhaus came up with NEW (Net Economic Welfare)
>>that took GDP and adjusted it for a bunch of things that
>>were in it that shouldn't be and others that weren't in it
>>that should be. He found those about washed out. He
>>did not include income distribution.
>> The United Nations has a Physical Quality of Life
>>Index (PQLI) that is probably closer to what you would
>>like to see. It does a better job of dealing with income
>>distribution, but not perfectly so. There are countries with
>>low GDPs but high PQLIs. I mentioned Sri Lanka in my
>>previous post precisely because it is such a one and also
>>has a fairly equal distribution of income by such measures
>>as Gini coefficients and decile ratios, etc.
>> There have been some more recent efforts by other
>>economists to come up with such measures, although
>>many of these measures are subject to criticisms for
>>alleged arbitrariness, etc.
>> Personally I think that looking at per capita GDP is
>>pretty useful. But I also certainly want to look income
>>distribution measures and also some more specific
>>physical indicators such as life expectancy, level of
>>womens' education, and so forth. Doing that one can
>>get a pretty good picture of what is going on in a society.
>>GDP is not the whole picture, and it has many problems,
>>but it is very far from being useless. It tells one quite a lot.
>>Barkley Rosser
>
>