Page 47 - COVID-19: The Great Reset

current production and consumption with no consideration given
to the future availability of resources. Policy-makers’ over-reliance

on GDP as an indicator of economic prosperity has led to the
current state of natural and social resource depletion.

What other elements should an improved dashboard for
progress include? First, GDP itself needs to be updated to reflect
the value created in the digital economy, the value created

through unpaid work as well as the value potentially destroyed
through certain types of economic activity. The omission of value
created through work carried out in the household has been a

long-standing issue and research efforts to create a measurement
framework will need new momentum. In addition, as the digital
economy is expanding, the gap between measured activity and
actual economic activity has been growing wider. Furthermore,
certain types of financial products, which through their inclusion in

GDP are captured as value creating, are merely shifting value
from one place to another or sometimes even have the effect of
destroying it.

Second, it is not only the overall size of the economy that

matters but also the distribution of gains and the progressive
evolution of access to opportunity. With income inequality more
marked than ever in many countries and technological
developments driving further polarization, total GDP or averages

such as GDP per capita are becoming less and less useful as true
indicators of individuals’ quality of life. Wealth inequality is a
significant dimension of today’s dynamic of inequality and should
be more systematically tracked.

Third, resilience will need to be better measured and
monitored to gauge the true health of an economy, including the
determinants of productivity, such as institutions, infrastructure,
human capital and innovation ecosystems, which are critical for
the overall strength of a system. Furthermore, the capital reserves

upon which a country can draw in times of crisis, including
financial, physical, natural and social capital will need to be
tracked systematically. Albeit that natural and social capital in

particular are difficult to measure, they are critical to the social

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