The Measure of Progress

“A Financial Times Best Economics Book of the Summer””[The Measure of Progress] should be widely read by anyone involved in economic policymaking or research.”—Vic Duggan, Irish Times“We should ALL read this important book… . While many of GDP’s shortcomings are well-known, Coyle sets out elegantly and compellingly why these issues have now become so numerous, and so serious, that we should rethink radically how we measure our progress.”—Kate Barker, The Society of Professional Economists“In this book, which surveys a wide range of literature, Coyle goes much further than has been done before in monetary economics, setting out the problems with many current measures of components of GDP clearly.”—Geoffrey Wood, Central Banking“Economic accounting’s use of gross domestic product dates back to the 1940s. It must now change, argues economist Diane Coyle … [Her] complex study, deftly made accessible, suggests a fresh approach.”—Andrew Robinson, Nature“This is an important and timely book on a subject that has for too long been consigned to the fringes of economic and policy thinking: finding a more accurate metric than Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to measure economic growth and value.”—David Goodhart, The Critic“The Measure of Progress works well as a standalone read… . [But] the real value of The Measure of Progress lies in its timing. Coyle reflects that while writing it economists, following the effects of the pandemic and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, were preoccupied with productivity and inflation respectively. Scrutinising GDP of course fits in well with this agenda… . Coyle’s focus on a statistical infrastructure to better measure and understand where value lies in global production networks could not be more relevant.”—Alan Smith, Financial Times“These wide-ranging, careful, and highly intelligent discussions make this a valuable book for even those without a significant interest in the immediate issues related to GDP.”—Kenneth S. Friedman, Interdisciplinary Journal of Economics and Business Law

Diane Coyle is the Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge. She is the author of Cogs and Monsters: What Economics Is and What It Should Be, GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History, and many other books.