ABSTRACT
What it is: Media stories of economic performance frequently refer to gross domestic product (GDP). A country’s GDP per capita measures economic production per person per year, which gives us an idea of the average material living standards in the country. While GDP is perhaps the most commonly used macroeconomic metric, it does not necessarily measure well-being. We discuss how GDP is calculated in Chapter 5 and about the limitations of, and alternatives to, GDP in Chapter 6.
