📍 THE IDEA OF NATIONAL INCOME
As income of a single person can be measured, it can be measured for a nation and the whole world, although the method of calculation may be a little bit complex in the latter’s case. In due course, four ideas/ways to calculate the income of a nation13 developed, which are the subject matter of the national income accounting’.
● Important Points :-
💡There are four ways to calculate the ‘income’ of an economy, although diferent from each other in some ways, are the concepts of GDP, NDP, GNP and NNP.
💡 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the value of the all final goods and services produced within the boundary of a nation during one year period.
💡Net Domestic Product (NDP) is the GDP calculated after adjusting the weight of the value of 'depreciation’.
📍 ECONOMIC GROWTH
A term coming from the life sciences,
‘growth’ in economics means economic growth.An increase in economic variables over a period of time is eco growth. Te term can be used in an individual case or in the case of an economy or for the whole world. The most important aspect of growth is its quantifability, i.e., one can measure it in absolute terms .
● Important Points :-
💡 To calculate the growth rate of an economic variable the diference between the concerned period is converted into percentage form.
💡Though growth is a value neutral term, i.e., it might be positive or negative for an economy for a specifc period, we generally use it in the positive sense.
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX
The dilemma of measuring the developmental level of economies was solved once the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) published its frst Human Development Report (HDR) in 1990. Te report had a human development index (HDI) which was the frst attempt to defne and measure the level ofdevelopment of economi
● Important Points :-
The HDR measures development by
combining three indicators—Health, Education and Standard of Living—converted into a composite human development index, the HDI.
💡The Education component of the HDI is now (since HDR-2010) measured by two other indicators–
(i) Mean of years of schooling (for adults aged 25 years)
(ii)Expected years of schooling (for
children of school entering age)
💡The Health component is measured by the life expectancy at birth
component ofthe HDIand is calculated using a minimum value of 20 years and maximum value of 83.57 years.
💡The Standard of Living component is measured by GNI (Gross National Income/ Product).
INTROSPECTING DEVELOPMENT
As the western world came to be regarded as developed, having top twenty ranks on the HDI, social scientists started evaluating the conditions of life in these economies. Most of such studies concluded that life in the developed world is anything buthappy
● Important Points :-
💡 It means development had failed to deliver them happiness, peace of mind, a general well-being and a feeling of being in good state.
💡 Whenever economists from the outset talked about progress they meant overall happiness of human life.
💡Social scientists, somehow have been using terms such as progress, growth, development, well-being, welfare as synonyms of 'happiness’.
📍 THE MEANING OF HAPPINESS
Happiness is an aspiration of every
human being, and can also be a measure of social progress. WHR argues that both approaches were, at least in part, motivated by a desire to consider progress and development in ways that went beyond the mere comparison of GDPs , and to put
people at the centre.
● Important Points :-
💡 The world has become a slightly
happier and more generous place over the past five years.
💡 Improvements in quality of life have been particularly notable in Latin America and the Caribbean, while reductions have been the norm in the regions most afected by the fnancial crisis .
📍RE- IMAGING THE IDEA OF HAPPINESS
Search for a ‘happier’ life for humanity has been the ultimate aim of not only saints, seers and philosophers, but of economists too. The whole gamut of economics literature on progress, growth and development is ultimately aimed at bringing more ‘happiness’ into the lives of human beings .
● Important Points :-
💡A time also came when many scholars and world leaders raised the ultimate question— are we happier today?
💡The UN resolution of 2011 which invited member countries to measure the happiness of their people and to use this to help guide their public policies.
