Beyond GDP: Forecasting Income Distribution Indicators

"Beyond GDP" is a concept that aims to assess the welfare of societies not only based on their economic performance. The traditional concept of Gross Domestic Product merely measures the sum of all goods and services produced in a country and neglects aspects such as the distribution of resources, particularly income, or the poverty situation of the population. Indicators for income distribution or poverty are not yet part of the regular economic forecasts produced by WIFO. Therefore, the WIFO Economic Outlook is to be expanded to include two distribution indicators based on available household income. To this end, microsimulation methods based on EU-SILC data (European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions) and additional data sources will be used.