Double session 1: GDP and beyond:

The history and general purpose of measuring welfare and progress will be elaborated in this lecture. It also provides an update on the current state of research in this area. 

Double session 2: National accounts:

In this double session an economic perspective on Beyond GDP with a special focus on the role of national accounts for measuring economic progress will be presented. 

Double session 3: Social indicators:

This lecture deals with the large group of social indicators and their different dimensions. It includes measurement of inequality and poverty as well as education and health indicators.

Double session 4: Well-being:

Aside from established economic, environmental or social criteria, there is more that characterizes welfare and happiness. These criteria are summarized in the well-being category. In this lecture several indicators of this field will be motivated and presented. Beyond that, their measurement will be discussed.

Double session 5: Environment:

Due to global warming and scarcity of resources environmental aspects are increasingly associated with the sustainability of welfare. This lecture treats the measurement of these modern aspects as well as classical environmental indicators (e.g. air pollution).  

Double session 6: Data and quality:

Indicators, regardless of their context, are often estimated from survey data. Therefore, in practice several issues have to be solved to guarantee a certain level of accuracy of the indicators. This double session tackles this problem and also gives an overview about common data sets used for estimating measures in the beyond GDP field.

Double session 7: Measuring progress at local level:

Local policies often require detailed information on disaggregated regional levels to provide locally adequate solutions. Since budgets for surveys are generally limited, the sample sizes in small regions become too small to assure certain levels of indicator accuracy if traditional methods are used. One way to tackle this issue is the use of small area methods. This lecture presents several key ideas of this methodology and their applicability in practice.

Double session 8: Moving forward:

The final double session sums up the most central points of the summer school. Furthermore, the future of the Beyond GDP field will be discussed.

All lectures will be held by experts on the respective fields.

Aside from the eight double sessions each location will provide a frame program consisting of a conference dinner, a goodbye party and cultural activities.