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3291814 
Journal Article 
Estimates of the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) for Vermont, Chittenden County and Burlington, from 1950 to 2000 
Costanza, R; Erickson, J; Fligger, K; Adams, A; Adams, C; Altschuler, B; Balter, S; Fisher, B; Hike, J; Kelly, J; Kerr, T; Mccauley, M; Montone, K; Rauch, M; Schmiedeskamp, K; Saxton, D; Sparacino, L; Tusinski, W; Williams, L 
2004 
Yes 
Ecological Economics
ISSN: 0921-8009 
ELSEVIER 
AMSTERDAM 
51 
1-2 
139-155 
WOS:000225630000009 
The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), a version of the Index
of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW), is a significantly more comprehensive approach to
assessing economic progress than conventional measures like gross domestic product (GDP). GPI
adjusts for income distribution effects, the value of household and volunteer work, costs of
mobility and pollution, and the depletion of social and natural capital. 1SEW or GPI have been
estimated for several countries around the world and a few Canadian provinces, but we report here
on the first multi-scale application at the city, county and state levels in Vermont, USA. We
show that it is feasible to apply the GPI approach at these smaller scales and to compare across
scales and with the national average. Data limitations and problems still exist, but potential
solutions to these problems also exist. All three Vermont scales had significantly higher GPI per
capita since 1980 than the national average, indicating the major differences that can exist
within countries. The GPI per capita for all Vermont scales was similar to the national average
in the 1950-1980 period, but more than twice the national average by 2000. The main factors
explaining this difference had to do with Vermont's much better environmental performance than
the national average in the post-1980 period. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 
Genuine Progress Indicator; Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare; gross domestic product