Wellbeing economy
Topic: Measuring Development: Income, HDI and Sustainability · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
A wellbeing economy is an economy designed to serve human and ecological well-being first. GDP growth is not treated as a goal for its own sake. Budgets and policies are judged by how they improve people's health, security, relationships and environment, not only by how much output they add.
Example
New Zealand's Wellbeing Budget (2019) chose its spending priorities by their effect on well-being, not on GDP alone. The Wellbeing Economy Governments (WEGo) group brings together Scotland, Iceland, New Zealand, Wales and Finland to share this approach.
Don't confuse with
- Happiness economics: this is a field of study that measures what makes people satisfied with life. A wellbeing economy is a way of running economic policy.