Is GDP a Relevant Social Welfare Indicator? A Savers–Spenders Theory Approach

The use of GDP as the main index of progress and welfare of a country has been the subject of a long debate among economists. Using and extending the savers–spenders theory, we analyse the theoretical relationship between GDP and the welfare of a society. This analysis is undertaken using several different overlapping generations models which all take into account the great heterogeneity of consumer behaviour observed in the data (different labour supply choices, different degrees of altruism and/or different degrees of impatience to consume). The results indicate that GDP (per capita) is often a relevant index and is always a decent social welfare indicator.