Skip navigation
Measure Well-Being to Improve It
Article

Measure Well-Being to Improve It

The 2019 Sustainable Economic Development Assessment


auto-generated audio
auto-generated audio

Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Analytical
  • Overview
  • For Experts

Recommendation

Nations should be gauging their citizens’ well-being – and not just via subjective metrics, such as the averages reported in the United Nations World Happiness Report. This report from professionals at the Boston Consulting Group makes a solid case for its proprietary Sustainable Economic Development Assessment, a tool for objectively evaluating national well-being that economists and analysts will find useful.

Summary

Every nation’s performance rating should consider unbiased measures of citizens’ well-being.

Powerful disruptions, for example due to rapidly advancing technology, are forcing governments to plan for ways to protect their citizens’ quality of life. Just as savvy businesses are moving away from a product focus toward one that emphasizes the user experience, governments must reorient themselves toward people’s realities. For example, New Zealand has created a “well-being budget” that covers mental health, the evolution toward a low-emissions economy and other areas of the public good. The Sustainable Economic Development Assessment (SEDA) monitors how adeptly governments translate their wealth...

About the Authors

Joao HrotkóEnrique Rueda-SabaterNikolaus Lang and Vincent Chin are professionals with the Boston Consulting Group.