Third Time Lucky? What we can learn from earlier attempts to measure more than GDP

Please note, this page has been archived and is no longer being updated.

An Administrative Data Research Centre Wales (ADRC Wales) seminar with Paul Allin, visiting professor in the Department of Mathematics, Imperial College London, which will explore what can be learnt from earlier attempts to measure more than GDP.

Title: Third Time Lucky? What we can learn from earlier attempts to measure more than GDP

Speaker: Paul Allin is a visiting professor in the Department of Mathematics, Imperial College London. He is researching and writing about the use of measures of national well-being – how a country is doing, in terms of economic performance, social progress, the environment and sustainability.  

With almost 40 years’ experience working within the UK government statistical service, mainly in policy departments, Mr Allin’s career began in the national accounts area of the Central Statistical Office with his final post directing the Measuring National Well-being programme at the Office for National Statistics in Newport.  

Date: Wednesday 3rd June 2015

Time: 11:30am until 13:30pm. (Registration is open from 11:30am until 11:45am, and the event begins at 11:45am with lunch served at 13:00pm.)

Venue: NHS Informatics Labs, 1st Floor, ILS2, Swansea University

Admission: Free, including lunch.

Event summary:

In this seminar, Paul Allin will explore what can be learnt from earlier attempts to measure more than GDP.

There is increasing interest in measuring well-being and progress more widely than by the national economic accounts.

The Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) Measuring National Well-being programme and developments by the Welsh Government are exemplars in going ‘beyond GDP’.

However, the many current initiatives on this front, drawing on administrative and survey data, form the ‘second wave’ of attempts to usurp GDP, if we take the social indicators movement in the 1960s as the ‘first wave’. 

We add in Sir John Sinclair’s Statistical Account of Scotland from the 1790s to reinforce the point that measuring things differently is not enough: new measures will have to be used in government, business and everyday life.

Who should attend: Social scientists, statisticians, PhD students and anyone interested in social research in general.  

For more information and to register your attendance visit https://adrcwalespaulallinseminar.eventbrite.co.uk.

About the organiser:

The Administrative Data Research Centre Wales (ADRC-W) is one of four UK centres which collectively along with the Administrative Data Service form the Administrative Data Research Network. These centres provide a safe, secure and transparent data linkage service for accredited, approved research within the UK.  

The Administrative Data Research Centre Wales is led by Swansea University Medical School in partnership with the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data & Methods (WISERD) at Cardiff University.

Along with its fellow Centres in England, Northern Ireland and Scotland and the Administrative Data Service, the Administrative Data Research Centre Wales works closely with accredited researchers to facilitate research using de-identified, linked administrative data. This research can be used to provide a sound base for policy makers to decide how to tackle a range of complex social, economic, environmental and health issues. 

@ADRCWales          

W: adrn.ac.uk                       

T: 01792 606918       

E: ADRCWales@swansea.ac.uk