A critique of the perceived solid conceptual foundations of ISEW %26 GPI - Irving Fisher%26apos;s cognisance of human-health capital in %26apos;net psychic income%26apos;

作者：Brennan Andrew John^*

来源：Ecological Economics, 2013, 88: 159-166.

DOI：10.1016/j.ecolecon.2012.12.026

• ISEW
• GPI
• Net psychic income
• Human-health capital
• Political economy

This paper puts forward a political economy critique of the perceived solid conceptual foundations of Sustainable Well-Being Indicators (SWBIs) such as ISEW and GPI. A particular version of %26apos;entropic net psychic income%26apos; has been implanted as the main conceptual basis for these aggregated measures of sustainable economic welfare. However, a well-known limitation of SWBIs is that they do not prudently factor-in measures of investment and depreciation of %26apos;human-health capital%26apos;-yet this is a critical aspect of sustainable well-being. It is argued that under Fisher%26apos;s psychic income framework, the heart of the indicator is a theory that specifies accounting for some sort of change in the human psyche, i.e. the stock (or fund) of human-health capital. Advocates of SWBIs cannot adequately account for the degree of human health or knowledge, because this is not their reference point-%26apos;personal consumption expenditures%26apos; is their reference point. Political economy seeks to avoid abstracting from the whole reality, recognising that endogenous processes of human-health capital formation are overdetermined. This paper thus argues that there is a significant conceptual shortcoming in ISEW and GPI, which, if left unattended will undermine the measure of theoretical legitimacy and empirical efficacy.

• 出版日期2013-4