Economists and public policy-makers alike have long been concerned with the relative and absolute economic welfare of various segments of the population. This interest reflects an underlying concern both about the equity of the existing distribution and about our ability to explainand forecast...

This paper considers some of the shortcomings of an income per I capita measure of economic well-being and suggests an alternative capitalized value of expected future income per capita. Part I considers briefly some of the variables that a generally acceptable empirical welfare function should...