We review the properties of the conventional static measure of changes in economic welfare, national income, in a dynamic economy. We show that it is possible to establish attractive welfare properties by rather simple arguments and that this variable can be estimated from current data. Its...

In a finite-horizon general equilibrium model national income is the value of output at supporting prices and a perturbation increases welfare if and only if it raises national income. National income therefore serves as both a welfare measure and a cost-benefit criterion. We construct a measure...