This document summarizes a collaboration between the OECD's Better Life Initiative and the Clio Infra project to present estimates of various dimensions of well-being globally since 1820, including economic measures like GDP per capita as well as social indicators like life expectancy, education levels, gender inequality, and environmental quality. It describes the statistical data collected by the Clio Infra project from over 25 major countries and 100 smaller countries on these topics. Preliminary results show that most indicators strongly correlate with GDP per capita, though some like inequality, security, and environmental quality show weaker or negative correlations. The data is meant to broaden analyses of socio-economic development beyond just GDP.
1. How Was Life?
Global Well-Being since 1820
Introduction by
Jan Luiten van Zanden
(Utrecht University)
2 October 2014
2. Cooperation of two projects
• OECD: Better Life Initiative: multi-dimensional
approach to well-being,
resulting a.o. in the How’s Life?
report
• Clio Infra project, global network of
economic historians to measure
various dimensions of long-term
evolution of world economy 1500-
2010.
3. CLIO INFRA
• Large ‘research infrastructural’ project funded by
NWO
• Universities of Utrecht, Groningen, Tuebingen,
International Institute for Social History
• Standardization historical statistics related to Global
Inequality 1500-2010
• Linked to International Economic History Associaiton
(IEHA)
4. CLIO INFRA
• Maddison project: historical national
accounts; international team of experts
• Similar collabs for human capital, demography,
institutions, biological standard of living,
sustainability, institutions, wages and prices, gender
inequality, income inequality
• Authors of the How Was Life? chapters
• Open access: www.clio-infra.eu
5. Aim of cooperation
• Present state-of-the-art estimates on various
dimensions of development of well-being in world
economy from 1820 to present (“GDP and beyond”)
• Contribute to the discussion about the broadening
of the welfare concept used to characterize socio-economic
development
• Indicate relevance of going “beyond GDP”, also in
historical analysis
7. Dimensions covered in “How Was Life?” book
Dimension Indicator(s)
Economic standard of living GDP per capita
Inequality Income inequality; Real unskilled
wages
Health Status Life Expectancy; Height
Education and Skills Educational attainment
Personal security Homicide
Civic Engagement and Governance Political institutions
Environmental Quality SO2; CO2; Species abundance
Gender Inequality Various indicators + composite ind.
Overall indicator of Well-Being Composite indicator (experimental)
8. Statistical Quality
• Data for 25 major countries and another 100+
since 1820….
• Important issue of quality of underlying
sources
• Four levels of statistical quality indicated for
each data point: based on credibility of
source, accuracy of method and comparability
across countries and over time
9. Some preliminary results
• In general very strong correlation of each indicator with GDP
per capita,
• though less unequally distributed, in particular when
composite indices are used (chapter 13)
• Exceptions: low/negative correlations in Inequality, Security,
and Environmental quality domains
• For some indicators clear global trends (“technology”) as they
improve over time even without GDP per capita growth
28. Conclusions
• Rich harvest of new data
• Available October 3rd on
OECD website.
• Wealth of data available
(StatLink & www.clio-infra.
eu)
• Future: move to
microdata with Clariah
project.
Hinweis der Redaktion
OECD’s interest in well-being.
To develop better policies we need to know what we mean by a better life…
…and we need to be able to measure it. This is the role of the well-being.
Most evidence for what well-being is points to something like this:
People rather than the economic system
Outcomes rather than inputs or outputs
Both the level (averages) and distribution (inequalities) matter
Both objective and subjective measures
Both now (well-being) and in the future (sustainability)
By the time of the 4th World Forum, held in Delhi in 2014, the situation had changed significantly.
The OECD was producing multiple documents measuring well-being (How’s Life, the BLI) and establishing standards for measuring specific areas that were highly controversial back in 2004 (SWB)
Other agencies – such as the UN and various NGOs – were also taking aspects of the Well-being Agenda increasingly seriously, and the public profile of well-being remains high.
Most evidence for what well-being is points to something like this:
People rather than the economic system
Outcomes rather than inputs or outputs
Both the level (averages) and distribution (inequalities) matter
Both objective and subjective measures
Both now (well-being) and in the future (sustainability)