The “Stiglitz report”: A well-argued assessment, a questionable method, and proposals that are not up to current challenges

The Stiglitz Commission, set up in 2008 by the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, to explore the limitations of current measurement indicators of socio-economic performance, recently issued a draft summary report on its website in English, in order to “collect comments and suggestions”.

The FAIR (Forum for Other Indicators of Wealth) Collective was formed following the establishment of this Commission to ensure that existing work on these issues is taken into account. It also aims to ensure that civil society is broadly involved in the Commission’s deliberations.

The search for complementary or alternative indicators to GDP should have represented a major opportunity to engage in a meaningful dialogue with

civil society. However, the Commission worked in “private”, producing proposals that were not subject to debate, some of which being not only inadequate but posing a number of major risks.

FAIR response aims to modify the substance and form of the report and to set out a number of avenues for the final report.