Elusive Economic Indicator: Quality Of Life Gauge

Money isn't everything. But in measuring the success of nations, it isn't easy to find a substitute.		金钱不是万能的。但要衡量国家成功与否，却又很难找到其他标准取而代之。
Political leaders are increasingly expressing dissatisfaction with gross domestic product─a monetary measure of all the goods and services a country produces─as a gauge of a nation's success in raising living standards.		作为一个国家生产的所有商品和服务的货币衡量标准，国内生产总值（GDP）被视为一个国家在提高生活标准方面成功与否的指标。政治领导人对GDP这种角色表现出的不满日益强烈。
In November, British Prime Minister David Cameron announced plans to build measures of national well-being that would take into account factors such as peoples' life satisfaction, following a similar effort by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.		Reuters 伦敦一家店铺门上写着“幸福”11月，英国首相卡梅伦（David Cameron）宣布将启动对国民幸福感的衡量，将考虑到人们的生活满意度等因素，此前法国总统萨科奇（Nicolas Sarkozy）也宣布过类似计划。
Their efforts cut to the core of what economics is supposed to be about: What makes us better off? How can we all have more of it? Anyone hoping for a clear-cut answer, though, is likely to be disappointed.		他们的举措触及到了经济发展状况的本质：什么让我们幸福？怎么才能让所有人都更幸福？然而，任何想得到明确答案的人可能都会感到失望。
'There is more to life than GDP, but it will be hard to come up with a single measure to replace it and we are not sure that a single measure is the answer,' said Paul Allin, director of the Measuring National Well-Being Project at the U.K.'s Office of National Statistics. 'Maybe we live in a multidimensional world and we have to get used to handling a reasonable number of bits of information.		英国国家统计局（Office of National Statistics）衡量国民幸福感项目（Measuring National Well-Being Project）负责人奥林（Paul Allin）说，幸福不仅仅取决于GDP，但很难提出单一指标来代替GDP，我们也不确定这个单一指标就是答案；也许我们住在一个多维世界，就必须要习惯管理合理数量的不同信息。
After a session on creating a national success indicator at the annual meeting of the American Economic Association on Friday, Carol Graham, fellow at the Brookings Institution, summed up the situation thus: 'It's like a new science. There's still a lot of work to be done.'		7日举行的美国经济学会（American Economic Association）年会对设立国家成功指标进行了讨论，在会议间隙，布鲁金斯学会（Brookings Institution）成员格雷姆（Carol Graham）对这种情况作出了总结：这就像是新的科学；仍有很多工作要做。
For much of the past four decades, economists have puzzled over a paradox that cast doubt on GDP as the world's main indicator of success.		过去四十年大多数时间，经济学家一直对一个悖论迷惑不解，这个悖论使人对GDP作为全球国家成功主要指标的角色产生了质疑。
People in richer countries didn't appear to be any happier than people in poor countries. In research beginning in the 1970s, University of Pennsylvania economist Richard Easterlin found no evidence of a link between countries' income─as measured by GDP per person─and peoples' reported levels of happiness.		这个悖论就是，富国国民似乎并不比穷国国民更幸福。宾夕法尼亚大学（University of Pennsylvania）经济学家伊斯特林（Richard Easterlin）从上世纪70年代开始的研究发现，没有证据证明国家的收入──以人均GDP计算──与国民申报的幸福水平有关系。
More recent research suggests GDP isn't quite so bad. Using more data and different statistical techniques, three economists at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School─Daniel Sacks, Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers─found that a given percentage increase in GDP per person tends to coincide with a similar increase in reported well-being. The correlation held across different countries and over time.		最近的研究表明，GDP也并不是那么罪大恶极。宾夕法尼亚大学沃尔顿商学院（Wharton School）经济学家赛克斯（Daniel Sacks）、史蒂芬森（Betsey Stevenson）和沃尔夫斯（Justin Wolfers）运用更多的数据和不同的统计学技巧进行研究后发现，人均GDP的特定百分比增幅往往与申报的幸福指数增幅相一致。这种关联在不同国家和不同时期都存在。
Still, for measuring the success of policy, GDP is far from ideal.		然而，要衡量政策的成功度，GDP是远远不够的。
Making everybody work 120 hours a week could radically boost a country's GDP per capita, but it wouldn't make people happier. Removing pollution limits could boost GDP per hour worked, but wouldn't necessarily lead to a world we'd want to live in.		让每个人每周工作120个小时能极大提高一个国家的人均GDP水平，但并不能使人们更幸福。消除污染限制能提高每小时劳动产生的GDP，但并不一定会形成一个大家都想居住的世界。
One approach is to enhance GDP with other objective factors such as inequality, leisure and life expectancy. In a paper presented Saturday at the American Economic Association meeting, Stanford economists Peter Klenow and Charles Jones found that doing so can make a big difference.		我们的方法是在GDP的基础上增加平等程度、闲暇时间和寿命等其他客观因素。8日，在提交给美国经济学会年会的一份报告中，斯坦福大学经济学家克莱诺（Peter Klenow）和琼斯（Charles Jones）发现，这样做会有很大的差别。
By their calculation, accounting for longer life expectancy, additional leisure time and lower levels of inequality makes living standards in France and Germany look almost the same as those in the U.S., which otherwise leads the pack by a large margin.		按照他们的计算方法，若考虑到寿命更长、闲暇时间多和平等程度高的因素，法国和德国的生活标准看起来几乎与美国相同，若非如此，美国本来会遥遥领先。
Mr. Klenow points out that the calculation is fraught with difficulties. For one, many countries have poor data on crucial factors such as life expectancy.		克莱诺指出，这种计算有很大困难。首先一点就是，许多国家对寿命等关键因素的数据统计很薄弱。
For the purpose of comparing well-being across countries, asking people how they feel might be better than monetary measures. Angus Deaton, an economist at Princeton University, notes that placing values on the extremely different goods and services consumed in the U.S. and, say, Tajikistan, can be impossible to do in a comparable way. Just asking people about their situation could be much easier and no less accurate.		为了对比各国的发展状况，询问国民的感觉也许比金钱测量要好。普林斯顿大学（Princeton University）经济学家迪顿（Angus Deaton）指出，美国和其他国家，比如说塔吉克斯坦，消费的商品和服务有极大的不同，要对这些商品和服务的价值进行比较几乎是不可能的。简单地询问人们的生活情况可能更容易，同时准确度也并不逊色。
Surveys already play a meaningful role in the way many countries assess their performance, from consumer confidence in the U.S. to the Netherlands's Life Situation Index, which accounts for factors such as relationships and community involvement.		在许多国家评估整体表现的过程中，问卷调查已经在发挥着重要的作用，从美国的消费者信心指数到荷兰的生活状况指数等种类很多，涉及到人际关系和社区参与等因素。
As part of its effort to gauge well-being, the U.K. plans to add more subjective questions to its household surveys.		作为衡量国民幸福感的一部分，英国计划在家庭调查中加入更多主观问题。
But surveys can also send misleading policy signals.		但问卷调查可能也会发出误导性的政策信号。
Mr. Wolfers, for example, has found that surveys of women's subjective well-being in the U.S. suggest that they are less happy than they were four decades ago, despite improvements in wages, education and other objective measures. That, he says, doesn't mean the feminist movement should be reversed. Rather, it could be related to rising expectations or greater frankness among the women interviewed.		比如，沃尔夫斯发现，对美国女性的主观幸福指数所做的调查表明，她们的幸福感低于四年前，虽然工资、教育和其他客观衡量因素都有所改善。他说，这并不意味着女权运动应该倒退。相反，这可能与被调查女性期望值升高或更坦率有关。
Peoples' true preferences are often revealed more by what they do than by what they say.		人们的真实偏好通常都会从行为中表现出来，而不是语言。
Surveys suggest people with children tend to be less happy than those without, yet people keep having children─and nobody would advocate mass sterilization to improve overall well-being.		调查显示，有孩子的人往往幸福感低于没有孩子的人，但人们还是会生孩子，没人会提倡通过大规模的结扎来改善整体国民的幸福感。
'What we care about in the world is not just happiness,' says Mr. Wolfers.		沃尔夫斯说，在这个世界中，我们关注的不仅仅是幸福感。
'If you measure just one part of what makes for a full life you're going to end up harming the other parts.'		如果你仅仅衡量组成完整生活元素的一部分，那么就会损及其他部分。
For the time being, that leaves policy makers to choose the measures of success that seem most appropriate for the task at hand. That's not ideal, but it's the best economics has to offer.		目前，也只能靠决策者选择看起来最符合目前形势的成功衡量标准了。这不是最理想的，但从经济学角度来说这已经是最好的了。