Sustaining Economic Welfare: Estimating Changes in Per Capita Wealth

'Genuine' saving values the total change in economic assets and, as such, provides an indicator of whether an economy is on a sustainable path. New estimates of genuine saving from the World Bank broaden the usual national accounts definitions of assets to include human capital, minerals, energy, forest resources and the stock of atmospheric CO2. The paper explores the issue of measuring changes in wealth per capita as a more comprehensive sustainability indicator which factors in both growth in total assets (as measured by genuine saving) and population growth. A theoretical approach to total wealth estimation is developed and first crosscountry estimates of changes in wealth per capita are presented. Based on preliminary estimates, the conclusion is that the majority of countries below median per capita income are in fact accumulating total wealth at a rate less than the rate of population growth.