Discussion of “New statistics for old?—measuring the wellbeing of the UK” by Paul Allin and David J. Hand
Discussion of “New statistics for old?—measuring the wellbeing of the UK” by Paul Allin and David J. Hand
Attempts to create measures of national wellbeing and progress have a long history. In the UK, they go back at least as far as the 1790s, with Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland. More recently, worldwide interest has led to the creation of various indices seeking to go beyond familiar economic measures like gross domestic product. We review the ‘Measuring national well‐being’ development programme of the UK's Office for National Statistics and explore some of the challenges which need to be faced to bring wider measures into use. These include the importance of getting the measures adopted as policy drivers, how to challenge the continuing dominance of economic measures, sustainability and environmental issues, international comparability and methodological statistical questions.
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Smith, Paul
a2548525-4f99-4baf-a4d0-2b216cce059c
January 2017
Smith, Paul
a2548525-4f99-4baf-a4d0-2b216cce059c
Smith, Paul
(2017)
Discussion of “New statistics for old?—measuring the wellbeing of the UK” by Paul Allin and David J. Hand.
Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A: Statistics in Society, 180 (1), .
(doi:10.1111/rssa.12188).
Abstract
Attempts to create measures of national wellbeing and progress have a long history. In the UK, they go back at least as far as the 1790s, with Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland. More recently, worldwide interest has led to the creation of various indices seeking to go beyond familiar economic measures like gross domestic product. We review the ‘Measuring national well‐being’ development programme of the UK's Office for National Statistics and explore some of the challenges which need to be faced to bring wider measures into use. These include the importance of getting the measures adopted as policy drivers, how to challenge the continuing dominance of economic measures, sustainability and environmental issues, international comparability and methodological statistical questions.
Text
Discussion of Allin & Hand 2016 v1a.docx
- Author's Original
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Submitted date: 21 June 2016
e-pub ahead of print date: 3 November 2016
Published date: January 2017
Organisations:
Social Statistics & Demography
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Local EPrints ID: 397739
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/397739
ISSN: 0964-1998
PURE UUID: 73137de8-91d8-402b-a98d-6c34c4061b69
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Date deposited: 05 Jul 2016 10:30
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:50
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