In this chapter, Lars Osberg and Andrew Sharpe provide an overview of trends in a number of dimensions of economic well-being (consumption flows, stocks of wealth, income equality, and economic security) from the lens of the Index of Economic Well-being, a new composite measure of economic...

In recent years, interest in aggregate or composite indicators of economic and social well-being at the community, national and international levels has grown greatly. For example, the release each year of the United Nations?Human Development Index (HDI) generates considerable media interest,...

In this chapter, John Helliwell sets the scene for many of the papers that follow by providing an up-to-date and lucid survey of the literature on the impact of social capital on both the economy or economic performance and well-being. This latter term is closely related to the concept of social...

In this chapter, Lars Osberg has the daunting task of examining the conceptual issues involved in defining and measuring social progress. As he highlights in his introduction, while much had been made of the fact that Canada in 2000 earned first place in the United Nations' Human Development...

This report develops a set of indicators of innovation in a number of the natural resource industries in Canada. It then uses these indicators to assess trends in innovation over time in these industries. The innovative performance of Canadian natural resource industries is also compared with...

The report uses an aggregate index, based on security from the economic risks imposed by four key factors – unemployment, illness, old age, and single parenthood – to examine trends in economic security in Nova Scotia from 1981 to 2007. It concludes that economic security in Nova Scotia...

A strong case can be made that the quality of governance provided by the government of Canada deteriorated somewhat from May 2011 to May 2013. While the government has constructed high-quality governance structures and implemented effective policies in many areas over many decades, the actions...

There has been an explosion of interest in recent years in Canada and other countries in macro-indicators and composite indexes of economic and social well-being. This reflects growing recognition of the important role macro-indicators can play as a tool for evaluating trends in and levels of...

The main objective of this report is to conduct a survey and assessment of various indicators used by organizations, both in Canada and abroad, to measure attributes and the well-being of society at the economic, health, environmental, social, and cultural levels. The compilation includes a...