Think20 supports call for a new measure of prosperity

In a recent statement, the Think20 (T20) appealed to the G20 to adopt new ways of measuring wellbeing. This appeal puts the Recoupling Dashboard, a country-specific research tool to measure the wellbeing of societies beyond GDP, at the centre.

The Recoupling Dashboard has been developed by Prof. Dennis J. Snower, President of the Global Solutions Initiative, and Dr. Katharina Lima de Miranda, researcher at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, and has been proposed to this year’s T20 in a recent policy brief. This policy brief was accompanied by a statement to the T20 by Prof. Marc Fleurbaey, Global Solutions Fellow and Co-Chair of the T20 task force on Social Cohesion and the State, and Katharina Lima de Miranda.

The impact of COVID‐19 is affecting countries and population groups in distinct ways, and underlying inequalities have made it more difficult for many countries to respond to the current crisis. The T20 statement marks a milestone for a new understanding of how we define prosperity and economic growth, which we urgently need to combat pandemics, climate change nor global poverty.

About the Recoupling Dashboard

The Recoupling Dashboard is a country-specific research tool to measure the wellbeing of societies beyond GDP and illustrates the correlation of economic prosperity, social prosperity and environmental sustainability. The Recoupling Dashboard harmonizes social prosperity in two innovative new indexes (agency and solidarity) alongside two traditional indexes (economic prosperity through GDP and environmental performance) to capture these fundamental dimensions of human wellbeing.

The Recoupling Dashboard’s innovative approach sheds light on the decoupling of societies and provides an empirical basis for mobilizing action in government, business and civil society to promote a recoupling of economic and social progress.

If the purpose of governments and businesses is to promote the public interest, the Recoupling Dashboard suggests that government and business decisions include assessments of their impacts on solidarity and agency. This is the first step toward reinventing our governance systems.

Further readings

Policy brief by Dennis J. Snower and Katharina Lima de Miranda

T20 Statement on Social Development Measurement

Recoupling Dashboard (incl. full data sets for download)