An Index of Economic Well-Being for Canada

The objective of this paper is to develop an index of economic weel-being for Canada for the period 1971 to 1997 using a framework originally laid out by Osberg (1985). Although the economic well-being of a society depends on the level of average consumption flows, aggregate accumulation of productive stocks, inequality in the distribution of individual incomes and insecurity in the anticipation of future incomes, the weights attached to each component will vary, depending on the values of different observers. It is argued that public debate would improved if there is explicit consideration of the aspects of economic well-being obscured by average income trends and if the weights attached to theses aspects were explicitly open for discussion.

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