Economic Development: Looking Beyond GDP Growth

Senator Robert F. Kennedy eloquently summarized the shortfall of measuring success of a nation solely on the level of GDP per capita:

“Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play.  It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. 

It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. 

And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.” – Senator Robert F. Kennedy (March 18, 1968)

In a way he was correct, a lot of us are quick to measure the success of a nation based solely on GDP per capita, or income per person. Yet, income is not the sole predictor of well-being. For example, income per person of India is much higher than that of Bangladesh, almost twice as high. Yet, as Nobel-prize winner Amartya Sen notes:

"Our hope is that India's public policymakers will be embarrassed by the comparison with Bangladesh. On a range of development indicators such as life expectancy, child immunisation and child mortality, Bangladesh has pulled ahead of India despite being poorer.”

If income was the sole indicator of development, then increasing GDP of the nation would have automatically cured all the social ills, like lack of access to clean water, lack of sanitation, stunting of children, lack of quality education access, and many more. Sadly, we do not see that happening.


The governments should not only ensure that gross domestic product (GDP) grows annually, but it also should ensure that the well-being of the citizens of the nation are improving as well. There are many countries where average income per person is relatively high, but social indicators paint a picture showing the majority of the country’s social development is severely lacking (Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, India, Pakistan to name a few).