Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-pkt8n Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-07T00:55:53.337Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

UK Real National Income, 1950-1998: Some Grounds for Optimism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

Nicholas Crafts
Nicholas Crafts*
Affiliation:
London School of Economics, Department of Economic History
*
e-mail: n.crafts@lse.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

It has been claimed using the concept of the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) that there has been an absolute decline in sustainable living standards in the UK since the mid-1970s. Revisions to ISEW are proposed to make it more nearly a measure of utility-based real national income. In particular, ISEW should be revised to take account of much-improved life expectancy. Implementing any of the suggested revisions reverses the finding of absolute decline while implementing all of them results in a growth rate higher than that of real GDP per head in the national accounts.

Type
Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 181 , July 2002 , pp. 87 - 95
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

∗

This paper was originally prepared for the conference, ‘Why Economic Growth? The meaning and measurement of GDP’, Kingston University, August 2001. I have gained from criticism by the participants. I am grateful to Eric Neumayer for helpful comments and access to his data. An anonymous referee made helpful suggestions that improved an earlier draft. I am solely to blame for all errors.

References

Atkinson, A. B. (1999), ‘The distribution of income in the UK and OECD countries in the twentieth century’, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 15(4), pp. 56–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crafts, N. F. R. (1993), ‘Was the Thatcher experiment worth it? British Economic Growth in a European context’, in Szirmai, A., van Ark, B. and Pilat, D. (Eds), Explaining Economic Growth, Amsterdam, North-Holland, pp. 327–350.Google Scholar
Crafts, N. F. R. and O'Mahony, M. (2001), ‘A perspective on UK productivity performance’, Fiscal Studies, 22, pp. 271–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Department of Health (1999), Economic Appraisal of the Health Effects of Air Pollution, London, The Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Department of Trade and Industry (2001), Digest of UK Energy Statistics, London, The Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Douthwaite, R. (1993), The Growth Illusion, Dublin, Lilliput Press.Google Scholar
Eisner, R. (1994), ‘The index of sustainable economic welfare: comment’, in Cobb, C. W. and Cobb, J. B. (Eds), The Green National Product, London, University Press of America, pp. 97–110.Google Scholar
El-Serafy, S. (1989), ‘The proper calculation of income from depletable natural resources’, in Ahmad, Y.J., El-Serafy, S. and Lutz, E. (eds), Environmental Accounting for Sustainable Development, Washington DC, World Bank, pp. 10–18.Google Scholar
Hicks, J. R. (1939), Value and Capital, Oxford, Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Jackson, T., Marks, N., Ralls, J. and Stymne, S. (1997), Sustainable Economic Welfare in the UK, 1950-1996, Guildford, Centre for Environmental Strategy.Google Scholar
Jones-Lee, M. W. (1989), The Economics of Safety and Physical Risk, Oxford, Blackwell.Google Scholar
Maddison, A. (2001), The World Economy, A Millennial Perspective, Paris, OECD.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthews, R. C. O., Feinstein, C. H. and Odling-Smee, J. C. (1983), British Economic Growth, 1856-1973, Stanford, Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Miller, T. (2000), ‘Variations between countries in values of statistical life’, Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, 34, pp. 169–188.Google Scholar
Mitchell, B. R. (1988), British Historical Statistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Murray, C. J. L. (1996), ‘Rethinking DALYs’, in Murray, C. J. L. and Lopez, A. D. (Eds), The Global Burden of Disease, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, pp. 1–98.Google ScholarPubMed
Neumayer, E. (1999), ‘The ISEW - not an index of sustainable economic welfare’, Social Indicators Research, 48, pp. 77–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neumayer, E. (2000), ‘On the methodology of ISEW, GPI and related measures: some constructive suggestions and some doubt on the ‘threshold’ hypothesis”, Ecological Economics, 34, pp. 347–361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nordhaus, W. D. (1998), ‘The health of nations: Irving Fisher and the contribution of improved longevity to living standards’, Discussion Paper No. 1200, Cowles Foundation.Google Scholar
Nordhaus, W. D. (2000), ‘New directions in national economic accounting’, American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 90, pp. 259–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Office for National Statistics (1999), Economic Trends Annual Supplement.Google Scholar
Office for National Statistics (2000), Population Trends, 99.Google Scholar
O'Mahony, M. (1999), Britain's Productivity Performance 1950-1996, London, National Institute of Economic and Social Research.Google Scholar
Oulton, N. and Young, G. (1996), ‘How high is the social rate of return to investment?’, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 12(2), pp. 48–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sefton, J. and Weale, M. R. (1996), ‘Real national income’, National Institute Economic Review, 155, pp. 90–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vaze, P. (1996), ‘Environmental accounts - valuing the depletion of oil and gas reserves’, Economic Trends, 510, pp. 36–45.Google Scholar