Enquete-Commission “Growth, Prosperity and Quality of Life”

The German Bundestag has set up a commission of inquiry (a so-called Enquete Commission) on the subject of growth, prosperiy and quality of life. The task of this commission, which comprises 17 delegates and 17 experts, is to discuss and work out “alternative indicators of prosperity” fit to complement or substitute the gross domestic product (GDP) as a central political variable.

The subject of this Enquete-Commission is closely intertwined with the advancement of the official statistics system and the research infrastructure in the social, behavioural and economic sciences as a whole. For this reason, the Working Paper Series of the German Data Forum, which seeks to discuss the further development of statistics and research infrastructure with regard to concepts and organization, expressly welcomes articles tackling methodical and organizational questions pertaining to alternative indicators.

First relevant papers had already been published in 2010 in the run-up to the Enquete-Commission. An article by economic expert Christop Schmidt started an ongoing series of publications in 2011.