" Anielski spent much of his career developing alternatives to GDP, indices that focus on what he calls genuine wealth and genuine progress. Anielski describes his work, for example, with the province of Alberta, in Canada, where he developed the Genuine Progress indicator (GPi) as an alternative to traditional GDP-like measures. [...] Anielski is not promoting a specific index like the GPi but is encouraging individuals, communities, businesses, and nations to define their core values, translate these values into measurable indicators, and use the resulting indices as means of tracking real progress, the extent to which core values are being reflected in community or national practices. [...] nielski’s methodology offers a tool for effecting a successful transition to a postconsumer society by elevating nonmaterial aspects of the good life, like friendship, family life, peaceful neighborhoods, intellectual pleasures, and everything else the GPi measures, to a level now occupied exclusively by GDP. Anielski’s book will appeal to much of the reading public, but it will perhaps have its greatest impact on those in public policy decision-making positions. Both economists and psychologists will benefit from Anielski’s framework and methodology for setting socially valid goals and measuring progress toward them."

"Anielski sees subjective well-being as an important component of Genuine Wealth, a novel method to measure welfare that he describes in the book. [...] Despite its title, The Economics of Happiness; Building Genuine Wealth by Mark Anielski is not a book about the economics of happiness. The goal of the book is to argue for a renewal of the standard measures of collective welfare. The first part of the book explores ancient conceptions of economic well-being. [...] The book moves on to discuss how Genuine Wealth Accounting can be implemented at the individual, national and organizational levels. Finally, Anielski argues that the failure of capitalism to generate genuine wealth is partly attributable to the reserve bank-ing system. Anielski’s objective is to make a case for a revolution of ideologies in economics. The book is well written but readers interested in learning about the economics of happiness might be disappointed. [...] Many turn to the happiness literature for evidence that capitalism is failing. Numerous interpretations of well-being surveys support the idea that economic growth is not a panacea. Anielski’s book argues for a revolution of ideas in Economics and presents an alternative way of measuring collective progress. Although Genuine Wealth Accounting appears somewhat subjective, because it necessitates choosing specific values to judge society by, the author deserves credit for attempting to formalize his model into an implementable approach."

"There is now a twenty-year tradition of activists, academics, and policymakers proposing alternative ways to measure well-being. [...] Mark Anielski is a part of this tradition. He worked on refinements to the gpi and applied the resulting index to Alberta in a widely-publicized 2001 report. He has worked in communities from Leduc, Alberta to Nunavut to Santa Monica as well as with corporations and with China's Academy of the Social Sciences to carry out audits of well-being. The Economics of Happiness is a personal account that draws on this experience to promote his Genuine Wealth Model. [...] Anielski's obvious energy and enthusiasm in adding to these alternatives deserve applause, but the Genuine Wealth model that this book sets out is not one I can support. Measurement is valuable only if it is demonstrably objective, and the Genuine Wealth Model fails this test. The book is personal and Anielski's beliefs are clear throughout. Perhaps it is because many of his beliefs left me cold that I found myself arguing against much of the book as I read. If you agree with statements such as 'In nature there is no scarcity, only abundance, harmony and equilibrium' (60) or 'true wealth ultimately comes as a gift from God' (66) - one of the 'fundamental tenets' at the 'philosophical heart of Genuine Wealth' - you may like this book more than I did. [...] The Genuine Wealth Model goes beyond providing aggregate measures for countries and provinces, and the most interesting chapters of the book are those that document Anielski's efforts to apply his methodology to individual communities, organizations, and companies. In these chapters there is no attempt to condense the observations into a single number and the outcome is more of an audit than a ranking. If the community itself gets input into the kinds of variables to be studied, then an audit of the kind he carries out would be a great focal point for discussion and policy debate. [...] Even here Anielski skirts some of the difficult problems. The obvious danger in such engagements (especially when one is hired by corporations to evaluate their conduct) is that there is a conflict of interest between the roles of auditor and client; yet this conflict is not mentioned. Anielski too often believes what people say of themselves. He accepts the claim that China is adopting 'a society of moderation'(132] and following a socially and environmentally harmonious development agenda (xiaokang) because President Hu Jintao says so. The section on the Bhutan monarchy's promotion of Gross National Happiness does not mention the expulsion of ethnic Nepalese from that country or the undemocratic rule of the king who introduced the measure. His take on the European Middle Ages (5th to 16th centuries) is that it was 'an age of moderation.' (54-5) [...] The outlook of the book is one of progress-by-enlightenment. If only we could recognize the shallowness of our current society and refocus on more spiritual goals, we would move society in that direction. In this Anielski has a lot in common with ideas of social entrepreneurship - business is fine, as long as well-meaning people are in charge. This ignores key institutional issues such as collective action problems, asymmetric information problems, and power inequalities that too often prevent groups of well-meaning individuals from acting in a constructive fashion. In summary, the book is unfortunately a missed opportunity."