Measuring growth - alternative signs of recovery

How do we really know whether the economy is recovering? Measuring the change in GDP is all very well, but it is subject to significant problems - the figures are subject to alterations over time as data is refined, they have to be adjusted by the GDP deflator, and even after all that, they don't tell us anything about people's sense of well-being, or the distribution of income.

So here is a challenge for your students: what alternative indicators of recovery could they devise? Some suggestions to set them off might include David Smith's skip index (see the final section of his blog entry here), Alan Greenspan's underpants index, which features in this NY Times article, the height of women's hemlines, the ease of booking a restaurant table on a Wednesday night..... how imaginative can your students be?

The Today programme on Radio 4 featured a 4-minute discussion on the matter yesterday, and the clip is available as a download here, although sadly only until Friday 27th Sept.