Decentring GDP: Well-being, care and time

In recent years, a number of proposals have highlighted how restrictive it is to use gross domestic product (GDP) as a measure of well-being. This document takes up those criticisms and also showcases the limitations of GDP as a measure of output.
What GDP measures and what it excludes is a product of conventions that reflect androcentric biases. The failure to appraise natural resources and non-remunerated services produced by households results in a skewed perspective on the economy that focuses on markets and neglects other processes that are essential to human life.
The Latin American and Caribbean region has a long history of political and technical agreements that emphasize the importance for societies of issues such as care, time distribution and well-being. The document proposes measuring what societies value and for decision-making to take on board measurements that complement GDP, time-use indicators in particular.