Incorporating changes in life expectancy into economic growth rates: an application to Belgium, 1867-1997

Longevity-adjusted growth rates are computed for Belgium over the period 1867-1997, by using a method based on contributions by Usher (1973a, 1980), Williamson (1984) and Miller (2000). Adjusted growth rates substantially differ from conventional figures, which may have tended to underestimate actual well-being improvements, especially during the second half of the 20th century. The analysis of the size of the adjustments, size which varies across periods, reveals that the post-1974 growth slowdown might have been less severe, in terms of social well-being, than suggested by usual measures. Our results, being robust to the introduction of some degree of endogeneity of longevity, seem to avoid the double-counting criticism. Several shortcomings of our method are discussed and some directions are proposed for future research. It is concluded that, thanks to their richer informational basis, longevity-adjusted growth rates constitute promising indicators to complement usual growth measures in the study of social well-being evolution over time.