Going beyond GDP: a new challenge also for training statisticians. A new master proposal and experience

Italy has recently deployed some important initiatives related to the development of a set of measurement to describe the well-being of population, beyond the merely economic ones summarized by GDP. These experiences were mainly based on a strong collaboration between Academia, the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) and other relevant organizations, such as the National Council for Economics and Labour. The first result attained was the definition and the elaboration of a set of indicators, covering the dimensions of well being from its different perspectives. The project is known with the acronym BES (Benessere Equo e Sostenibile, Fair and Sustainable Wellbeing; http://www.misuredelbenessere.it/index.php?id=51, where also publications on this project can be found). The intense methodological and conceptual work that brought to these results has also given the opportunity to collect a number of different expertise (on statistics, sociology, economics, IT, communication) activating them around a common theme and a common effort. Furthermore, the release of first results has boosted the interest in the subject of “beyond GDP measures” in a number of organizations, especially at the local level, and shown the opportunity to set up a new academic educational proposals giving the possibility to young statisticians to be trained in the new perspective of “going beyond GDP”.