Genuine wealth assessment
Encyclopedia
The Genuine wealth assessment (GWA) is an alternative metric system which has been suggested to supplement gross domestic product
(GDP) as a metric of economic growth
. Specifically, the GWA is used to assess the well-being of communities.
The first step in the genuine wealth assessment is to come to an understanding of the core values of a community. The core values of the residents together with the community's economic, social, health and environmental conditions are evaluated against genuine wealth benchmarks to create a large number of genuine wealth indicators. For example, genuine wealth indicators of surrounding communities, or of the same community at a different period in time, can serve as a benchmark. Genuine wealth accounting considers financial, manufactured, human, social and natural capital.
The genuine progress indicator
full-cost-benefit accounting model is a subset of the more comprehensive integrated genuine wealth accounting model for measuring the overall well-being and sustainability of communities and organizations.
One of the key measures of the genuine wealth model is the ecological footprint
analysis, or EFA.
professor Mark Anielski. It is also the subject of an award-winning book entitled “The Economics of Happiness: Building Genuine Wealth”.
Gross domestic product
Gross domestic product refers to the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period. GDP per capita is often considered an indicator of a country's standard of living....
(GDP) as a metric of economic growth
Economic growth
In economics, economic growth is defined as the increasing capacity of the economy to satisfy the wants of goods and services of the members of society. Economic growth is enabled by increases in productivity, which lowers the inputs for a given amount of output. Lowered costs increase demand...
. Specifically, the GWA is used to assess the well-being of communities.
The first step in the genuine wealth assessment is to come to an understanding of the core values of a community. The core values of the residents together with the community's economic, social, health and environmental conditions are evaluated against genuine wealth benchmarks to create a large number of genuine wealth indicators. For example, genuine wealth indicators of surrounding communities, or of the same community at a different period in time, can serve as a benchmark. Genuine wealth accounting considers financial, manufactured, human, social and natural capital.
The genuine progress indicator
Genuine Progress Indicator
The genuine progress indicator is an alternative metric system which is an addition to the national system of accounts that has been suggested to replace, or supplement, gross domestic product as a metric of economic growth...
full-cost-benefit accounting model is a subset of the more comprehensive integrated genuine wealth accounting model for measuring the overall well-being and sustainability of communities and organizations.
One of the key measures of the genuine wealth model is the ecological footprint
Ecological footprint
The ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems. It is a standardized measure of demand for natural capital that may be contrasted with the planet's ecological capacity to regenerate. It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area necessary to...
analysis, or EFA.
History
The concept of genuine wealth accounting was defined by ecological economist and University of AlbertaUniversity of Alberta
The University of Alberta is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta and Henry Marshall Tory, its first president, it is widely recognized as one of the best universities in Canada...
professor Mark Anielski. It is also the subject of an award-winning book entitled “The Economics of Happiness: Building Genuine Wealth”.
See also
- WikiprogressWikiprogressWikiprogress is a online platform for sharing information on the measurement of social, economic and environmental progress. It is thought to facilitate sharing on ideas, initiatives and knowledge on "measuring the progress of societies"...
- Ecological footprintEcological footprintThe ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems. It is a standardized measure of demand for natural capital that may be contrasted with the planet's ecological capacity to regenerate. It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area necessary to...
- Full cost accountingFull cost accountingFull cost accounting generally refers to the process of collecting and presenting information - about environmental, social, and economic costs and benefits/advantages - for each proposed alternative when a decision is necessary. It is a conventional method of cost accounting that traces direct...
(FCA) (with relevance to the environment) - Genuine progress indicatorGenuine Progress IndicatorThe genuine progress indicator is an alternative metric system which is an addition to the national system of accounts that has been suggested to replace, or supplement, gross domestic product as a metric of economic growth...
- Global Peace IndexGlobal Peace IndexThe Global Peace Index is an attempt to measure the relative position of nations' and regions' peacefulness. It is the product of Institute for Economics and Peace and developed in consultation with an international panel of peace experts from peace institutes and think tanks with data collected...
- Green gross domestic productGreen Gross Domestic ProductThe green gross domestic product is an index of economic growth with the environmental consequences of that growth factored in. Green GDP monetizes the loss of biodiversity, and accounts for costs caused by climate change...
(Green GDP) - Gross domestic productGross domestic productGross domestic product refers to the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period. GDP per capita is often considered an indicator of a country's standard of living....
(GDP) - Happy Planet IndexHappy Planet IndexThe Happy Planet Index is an index of human well-being and environmental impact that was introduced by the New Economics Foundation in July 2006. The index is designed to challenge well-established indices of countries’ development, such as Gross Domestic Product and the Human Development Index...
(HPI) - Human Development IndexHuman Development IndexThe Human Development Index is a composite statistic used to rank countries by level of "human development" and separate "very high human development", "high human development", "medium human development", and "low human development" countries...
(HDI) - ISEW (Index of sustainable economic welfare)
- Living planet indexLiving Planet IndexThe Living Planet Index is an indicator of the state of global biological diversity, based on trends in vertebrate populations of species from around the world....
- Quality-of-life indexQuality-of-life indexThe Economist Intelligence Unit’s quality-of-life index is based on a unique methodology that links the results of subjective life-satisfaction surveys to the objective determinants of quality of life across countries...
Further reading
- "Genuine Wealth Accounting for sustainable planning" by Paul Benedetto, City Manager of Leduc, Alberta
- "http://www.canadianstewardship.com/2009presdownloads/2SeidelCdnStewardship.pdf" A Genuine Wealth Assessment of Alberta's Stewardship Programs, 2009 presentation by Christina Seidel, sonnevera international corp.
- “Genuine wealth: building economies of well-being” Article on entrepreneur.com by Mark Anielski.
- Anielski, Mark. 2007. The Economics of Happiness: Building Genuine Wealth. New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island.
External links
- http://environment.gov.ab.ca/info/library/7777.pdf Genuine Wealth Assessment of Alberta's Stewardship Programs. Final Report prepared for Alberta Environment
- http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/179269357.html Genuine wealth: building economies of well-being” by Mark Anielski
- http://www.genuinewealth.net/WhatisGenuineWealth.pdf What is Genuine Wealth? Article on genuinewealth.net