GDP not true measure of well-being

Soon after the global financial meltdown, several leading economists called on world leaders to learn from the crisis and rethink one of the conventional indicators of economic development: gross domestic product (GDP).

GDP, they pointed out, measures economic activity, not economic benefit.

"If we have poor measures, what we strive to do (say, increase GDP) may actually contribute to a worsening of living standards," Nobel Prize laureate Joseph E Stiglitz wrote in an article titled GDP Fetish.