NOBEL prize-winning American economist Joseph Stiglitz has warned Scotland not to pursue the economic model of the US, where he said rising Gross Domestic Product (GDP) masks increased poverty for many.
Professor Stiglitz, giving evidence by video link from Columbia University in New York, was being questioned by MSPs on whether new ways of measuring national economic performance have to be found.
He was highly critical of GDP as such a measure, claiming it said little about how the citizens of any country were faring.
He pointed out that the normal male worker in the US was now earning the equivalent of 40 years ago, typical family earnings were at the level of 15 years ago, while 120% of additional income over the past two years had gone to the top one per cent of the population.
He said: "GDP isn't a perfect measure of output. We have just used it for so long that we have forgotten all its blemishes."
Instead, he argued, we should abandon one single measure in favour of a "dashboard" of different statistics, which should include the well-being of citizens and how the economy is working for them.
He said it was good that Scotland was looking to measure other factors such as education, wages, employment, job creation, security, the environment and whether, in exploiting resources, we need to plan for a depleted future.
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