Letter to BS: Time for economists to leave GDP alone and focus on happiness

This refers to “Development Economics after the Nobel Prize” (November 13). Post Adam Smith, an eon was spent in identifying conditions necessary for wealth-creation. An era was then spent on distribution of income between capital and labour. Nobel winner Professor Angus Deaton then delved into the cause and spread and measurement of poverty. Now Abhijeet Banerjee et al have analysed to combat it through the seminal concept of Randomised Control Trials. It may take ages for socio-economists to move away from a trite GDP to the concept of happiness. More than in economics, development needs to be in human ethos.

R