GDP is not enough anymore. The Poles have corrected our development by smog or innovation and yet we went up

GDP as a measure of economic development of countries is no longer enough - convince economists from the Polish Institute of Economics. Therefore, they took into account such indicators as air purity, development of innovativeness or safety on the streets and created their own index. Moderately optimistic, but giving much food for thought.

"After the initial wave of enthusiasm, it turned out that GDP growth does not translate proportionally to the wealth and prosperity of all citizens" - noted members of the Polish Institute of Economics. The new Polish think-tank decided to create its own "Index of Responsible Development" .

The IOR consists of three pillars. The first of these is the current prosperity, or per capita consumption, and the Gini index, which reflects the level of inequality. Beside him, the creation of future prosperity appeared. It includes research and development expenses, PhD student per capita expenses and number of trade marks assigned) and non-wage factors. The latter name includes such indicators as expected life expectancy, safety level (expressed in the number of homicides) and air quality (measured by PM 2.5 emission, i.e. a popular smog).

As it turned out? Well - we have passed a considerable jump up. In 2017, we ranked 56th on the list by nominal GDP per capita (the list included 189 countries that are members of the International Monetary Fund). At that time, the Polish institute took a closer look at the economy 162. In his index, we took the 29th place. Why?

"Index of Responsible Development"

Fortunately, the authors of the index also prepared separate studies for each of the pillars. Let's start with what we are losing, ie from the second pillar. Due to many years of neglect regarding innovation and science, we were only 51st in it. What is worse, literally all indicators belonging to this pillar are pulling us down. And it did not have to be like this.

Although the leaders of Filar II are affluent countries, the average GDP per capita exceeds 40,000 dollars. (in Poland, less than 14,000 - ed.), countries such as Estonia or Costa Rica have shown that it is possible to increase innovation, even if there is no high GDP - Polish economists have pointed out.

We owe the place in "30" mainly to the third pillar. Lack of terrorism, safe streets and life expectancy (ZUS likes it) gave us 23rd place just behind France, Sweden and South Korea and at the same time far away by eg USA or Canada.

Only one reservation should be made in this pillar.

The third indicator is the purity of the assessment air based on PM2.5 dust concentration. And right here Poland is severely offensive, especially compared to other European countries .

In the short term, we should take care of air quality, which international organizations require from us. The improvement of this indicator could give us a 1-2 positions upward prospect in the next few years. Things such as raising consumption levels (where we stand out from Switzerland or Germany) or raising spending on research and development are already long-term issues. This can not be done day by day - comments Marek Lachowicz, one of the authors of the study, for Spider's Web.

In the first pillar, the most consistent with traditionally understood wealth, we found ourselves in the 30th place. In a separate ranking, taking into account progress in the years 2015-2017, we have already reached the 20th position. Which means that in terms of the amount of consumption and reducing social inequalities, we are better off than, say, Germans. PIE links this to PiS redistributive programs. That it would not be too fun, however, look at the graphics below.

Looking at the index as a whole - the leading positions were occupied by the Scandinavian countries - Norway (2.), Sweden (3.) and Denmark (5th), which, based on the GDP itself, should be somewhere between the first and second decade. The leader in 2017 was Switzerland. But Helweci is just one of the few examples, where the gross domestic product and the rest of the indicators quite well harmonize with each other.

On the other hand, it turns out that when we wave our hand to production and attach more importance to living conditions, many lose the United States, which from the seventh (GDP per capita) places fall to 12.

GDP as a measure is already an old man.

Measuring the level of the state's development with the value of goods and services created in a given country is an idea from the times of the Great Depression in the USA from the beginning of the last century. American economists have been wondering how to investigate the devastation that has arisen in their country. And they found a GDP which, as it turned out later, between 1929 and 1931 fell by half.

In time, however, such a one-dimensional view of the economy was growing by a growing number of critics. After World War II, some people rightly noticed that the damage caused after the war paradoxical increase GDP, because there is a huge demand for all kinds of services.

In spite of this, there has not been an index so far that would so overwhelm the imagination of expert politicians and ordinary people. The often quoted "Human Development Index" (HDI) is criticized for politicization. One of its creators, Mahbub ul Haq, was previously a finance minister in the Pakistani government.

Including many organizations and teams, including the European Commission and the OECD, is the subject of inclusive development. We would like to join this group, but our contribution to the international debate can not only be based on the assessment of existing measures. That is why our proposal of the Responsible Development Index is also an invitation to further scientific discussion - writes Lachowicz.

* graphics come from the "Responsible Development Index"

GDP is not enough anymore. The Poles have corrected our development by smog or innovation and yet we went up