Quantifying National Well-Being

In her measuring development presentation, economist Susan Randolph examines outdated ways of looking at national well-being. Typically, economists judge a country's well-being on increasing per capita income, when they should be looking at the freedom to live with dignity and the country's ability to translate their income into these freedoms. As dictated by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, freedoms or rights we can expect economic institutions to provide are food, health, education, housing, work and social security.

Susan Randolph explains in her measuring development presentation, an index she created with her colleagues that quantifies the ability of states to translate their resources into the fulfillment of these rights. The SERF index also explains the scope for countries to improve lives without raising per capita income. This examines the possibility to extend life, improve child health and nutrition, among other factors.