Publication: Sustaining Economic Welfare : Estimating Changes in Per Capita Wealth
Date
2000-11
ISSN
Published
2000-11
Author(s)
Hamilton, Kirk
Abstract
The World Bank's "World
Development Indicators 1999" highlights for the first
time the "genuine" rate of saving for more than
100 countries around the globe. Genuine saving values the
total change in economic assets, thereby providing an
indicator of whether an economy is on a sustainable path.
The Bank's new estimates of genuine saving broaden the
usual national accounts definitions of assets to include
human capital, minerals, energy, forest resources, and the
stock of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Genuine saving measures
the change in total assets rather than the change in per
capita assets. Genuine saving data may answer the question,
"Did total wealth rise or fall over the acoounting
period?" But they do not address the question of
whether an economy is sustainable with a growing population.
Genuine saving could be positive even though per capita
wealth is declining. The author explores the issue of
measuring changes in per capita wealth--factoring in both
growth in total assets (as measured by genuine saving) and
population growth--as a more comprehensive indicator of
sustainability. First he develops a theoretical approach to
estimating total wealth. Then he presents cross-country
estimates of changes in per capita wealth. Based on
preliminary estimates, he concludes that in the majority of
countries below the median per capita income, wealth is
accumulating more slowly than the population is growing.
Citation
“Hamilton, Kirk. 2000. Sustaining Economic Welfare : Estimating Changes in Per Capita Wealth. Policy Research Working Paper;No. 2498. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/19768 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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