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Sustainability and Well-being Indicators

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Human Well-Being

Part of the book series: Studies in Development Economics and Policy ((SDEP))

Abstract

Most indicators of well-being ignore sustainability and most indicators of sustainability ignore (current) well-being. A prominent example for the former is the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Index (hereafter UNDP and HDI), whereas the World Bank’s Genuine Savings (GS) is characteristic of the latter. This chapter provides a critical assessment of those efforts, which have tried to integrate both concepts into one single indicator or have combined the measurement of both without full integration. Well-being often comes under the name welfare or utility, and we will use all three terms interchangeably here. In spite of its common use in economics and other social sciences, it is not easily defined in a concrete sense. Other chapters of this book discuss the meaning of well-being and how best to measure it in detail.

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Authors
  1. Eric Neumayer
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. World Institute for Development Economics Research, United Nations University, Helsinki, Finland

    Mark McGillivray (Senior Research Fellow, Inaugural Fellow of the Human Development and Capabilities Association) (Senior Research Fellow, Inaugural Fellow of the Human Development and Capabilities Association)

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© 2007 United Nations University

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Neumayer, E. (2007). Sustainability and Well-being Indicators. In: McGillivray, M. (eds) Human Well-Being. Studies in Development Economics and Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230625600_8

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