GDP and Beyond: Measuring Economic Progress and Sustainability

The United States possesses some of the most highly developed sets of gross domestic product (GDP) accounts in the world. These accounts—which are collectively know as the national income product and wealth accounts or national accounts—have been regularly updated over the years and have well served researchers, the business community, and policymakers alike. However, since their inception in the 1930s, the economy has continuously evolved, and issues have been raised about the scope and structure of the national accounts.  Simon Kuznets (1941), one of the early architects of the accounts, recognized the limitations of focusing on market activities and excluding household production and a broad range of other nonmarket activities and assets that have productive value or yield satisfaction. Further, the need to better understand the sources of economic growth in the postwar era led to the development (much of it by academic researchers) of various supplemental series, such as the contributions of investments in human capital and natural resources to economic growth.