Current law student, future lawyer, pizza enthusiast.
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The topic of my proposed Wikipedia project is an overview of criticisms of using Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in quantifying how the human economic experience is changing. Among the shortfalls of using GDP (or GDP per capita, which places a focus on the individual level) is that, because it places a single numerical value that represents an entire country’s population, it simply lacks nuance. While it is effective in conveying the overall wealth that exists in a nation, it speaks nothing to the differences that invariably exist among the residents of a nation. Largely, the most easily observable gaps would be between people of different ages, races, and genders. For the purpose of this project, in the context of the course, I will focus on the gender-related aspects of this area.
Although these topics are touched on in a few related Wiki articles, the full breadth of these criticisms and limitations are not readily available on a single page or through straightforward navigation between pages. Most notably, they are largely absent in the GDP article itself, which is the page on which they should be most emphasized. As GDP is one of the basic measures learned by beginning economic students in both high school and undergraduate studies, including these criticisms is important in order to fully convey a balanced assessment of its benefits as well as its drawbacks. Because using GDP as the only measure of economic progress is largely taught as a normative “fact” in schools, the critiques of using it exclusively in this arena should be included on Wikipedia so that people learning about GDP can easily see this, rather than only students in higher-level or alternative economic classes.
Some of the sources that I will use in undertaking this project have been included in class readings, and others will be related scholarly articles and papers. These sources will include not only the relevant critiques and shortfalls of using GDP, but also include proposed alternatives. For example, there are many alternative indices that have been proposed and implemented that capture not only overall economic growth (which is the case with GDP), but also attempt to quantify the economic gaps that exist within a country, particularly between men and women. This project will involve five separate articles, both through edits of the information presented on each page and through the potential navigation among the pages. These five pages include:
• Gross domestic product • Feminist economics • National accounts • Economic growth • Capability approach
Ideally, a Wikipedia user will be able to navigate between all five of these pages in an intuitive and straightforward manner in order to more fully and easily understand the relevant information. For example, when mentioning the critiques of GDP and discussing the alternative approaches, a link will be provided to the Capability approach page. This will allow not only for the information itself to appear in the article, but also for the user to more easily see where that information comes from and then, if curious, to explore further.