Today I’m working on a talk for a conference organised by the Royal Economic Society, Royal Statistical Society and Institute for Fiscal Studies on the agenda for modernising economic statistics. The day’s programme covers a wide range of questions including regional statistics and measuring the digital. My contribution will be about ‘beyond GDP’. I was just reflecting that in the two years since my book, GDP: A Brief But Affectionate History was first published there have been enough other books on this issue to declare it a new genre.

Precursors were in 2009:

[amazon_link id=”B00E32LW1C” target=”_blank” ]Mismeasuring Our Lives[/amazon_link] by Sen, Stiglitz, Fitoussi (the report of the Commission set up by former President Sarkozy)

[amazon_image id=”B00E32LW1C” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Mismeasuring Our Lives: Why GDP Doesn’t Add Up by Stiglitz, Joseph E., Sen, Amartya, Fitoussi, Jean-Paul published by New Press, The (2010)[/amazon_image]

and in 2013:

[amazon_link id=”019976719X” target=”_blank” ]Beyond GDP: Measuring Welfare and Assessing Sustainability [/amazon_link]by Marc Fleurbaey and Didier Blanchet

[amazon_image id=”019976719X” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Beyond GDP: Measuring Welfare and Assessing Sustainability[/amazon_image]

Then:

[amazon_link id=”0691169853″ target=”_blank” ]GDP: A Brief But Affectionate History[/amazon_link] by Diane Coyle

[amazon_image id=”0691156794″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History[/amazon_image]

[amazon_link id=”1780322720″ target=”_blank” ]Gross Domestic Problem[/amazon_link] by Lorenzo Fioramonti

[amazon_image id=”1780322720″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Gross Domestic Problem: The Politics Behind the World’s Most Powerful Number (Economic Controversies)[/amazon_image]

[amazon_link id=”0801451639″ target=”_blank” ]Poor Numbers[/amazon_link] by Morten Jerven

[amazon_image id=”0801451639″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Poor Numbers: How We are Misled by African Development Statistics and What to Do About it (Cornell Studies in Political Economy)[/amazon_image]

Later:

[amazon_link id=”B015X37CI6″ target=”_blank” ]The Little Big Number[/amazon_link] by Dirk Philipsen

And new/forthcoming:

[amazon_link id=”1681771373″ target=”_blank” ]The Great Invention[/amazon_link] by Ehsan Masood

[amazon_image id=”1681771373″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Great Invention: The Story of GDP and the Making (and Unmaking) of the Modern World[/amazon_image]

[amazon_link id=”B01EB74DFU” target=”_blank” ]The Power of A Single Number[/amazon_link] by Philipp Lepenies.

[amazon_image id=”0231175108″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Power of a Single Number: A Political History of GDP[/amazon_image]

When this kind of thing happens, there is certainly change afoot.