Repurpose Economics
We strongly believe in the need to repurpose the orthodox economic doctrine. The discipline has fallen victim to the law of the instrument, where economists have become blinded by their own set of concepts to the point that it is hard for them to understand the world beyond their “toolset”. This is a critical issue that must be addressed if we are to come up with innovative solutions to new challenges. While we should not throw away the entirety of economics as we know it, we must identify its problems and address them constructively. For this, it is important to avoid irrational gatekeeping and instead promote a plurality of voices and debates within the discipline.
Solution: Well-being as the starting point
A practical way in which we can “repurpose” our economy is through ditching GDP as the main proxy for well-being and instead focus on more direct measures. While it is a powerful and useful variable, GDP growth – and its zealot-like pursuit – is environmentally unsustainable, and in many instances, detrimental to the well-being of the broader population. It is often argued that GDP is the best (or least-worst) measure we have for our economy; however, in the data-rich world we live in today – is it really?
Learning from the successes and shortcomings of the Gross National Happiness Index first introduced in Bhutan, and in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it would be possible for governments to develop well-being targets and apply them to economic policy-making. For this, a series of internationally recognised benchmarks should be agreed on. These would largely build upon the United Nations’ SDGs and help in reaching the level of cross-country comparability that GDP currently allows.
Multilateralism therefore needs to be, on the one hand, the basis for this systematic change, as many of these measures would be externally evaluated (such as quality of governance) for new standards to be as globally respected as GDP. On the other
hand, the possibilities for data disaggregation of such well-being indexes are enormous; in other words, governments would be able to target issues in the economy much more effectively than just hoping for a “trickle-down” effect like they currently do.
Innovative methods of quantification should be explored through channels ranging from traditional surveying all the way to social media. In as much as we have to bring humanity into economics, we must simultaneously be able to quantify these ideas to produce evidence-based policies.
Overall, economic “repurposing” must focus on finding as-good alternatives to the socially inefficient status quo that may begin to push us towards a more humane and sustainable future. What used to be thought of as impossible is now becoming perfectly feasible with the integration of Big Data into
governance – we just need the will to put this knowledge to use in order to develop innovative solutions. In other words, just about doing the trick does not cut it anymore: we can do better!