New database estimates genuine savings in 25 countries from 1850 to 2018, suggesting implications for future well-being.
We introduce a new database of historical Genuine Savings (GS), an indicator of sustainable development promoted by theWorld Bank and widely used in contemporary economic research. GS derives from the theoretical work on wealth accounting, and addresses shortcomings in conventional metrics of economic development by incorporating broader measures of saving and investment, including human capital (education), and natural resource depletion. Its value as an indicator is determined by its ability to be used to predict future well-being. This article provides consistent historical estimates of GS since 1850 for 25 countries to enhance, complement, and contextualise the work of theWorld Bank, scholars and consultants.
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McLaughin et al. (2025) studied this question.
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