How Was Life? Volume II
New Perspectives on Well-being and Global Inequality since 1820
How was life in 1820, and how has it changed since then? This question, which was
at the core of How Was Life? Global Well-being since 1820, published by the OECD in
2014, is addressed by this second volume based on a broader perspective. How Was Life?
New Perspectives on Well-being and Global Inequality since 1820, presents new estimates
of working hours, biodiversity loss, social spending and GDP (accounting for the 2011
round on purchasing power parities) as well as measures of inequalities in wealth,
longevity and educational attainment, gender disparities and extreme poverty. A final
chapter synthesises the historical evidence included both in the current and previous
volume of How Was Life? through composite measures of the average well-being performance
of each country, and of different within-country inequality measures. As was the case
for the previous volume, this book combines both a historical and a global perspective,
presenting estimates since 1820 for 25 major countries and 8 world regions. While
this evidence sometimes relies on partial and limited evidence, each chapter in this
book assesses the quality of the data used and identifies areas for further historical
research.
This second volume of How Was Life? is the product of collaboration between the OECD
and the OECD Development Centre, on one side, and a group of economic historians gathered
around the CLIO-INFRA and Maddison projects, on the other. The historical evidence
included in the report is organised around dimensions of well-being that mirror those
used by the OECD in its report How’s Life?
Published on March 25, 2021