Measuring sustainable development: Some empirical evidence for France from eight alternative indicators

This paper presents results from a time-series analysis of eight measures of development and/or sustainability for France. The measures chosen are green national net product, Genuine Savings, ecological footprint, Indicator of Sustainable Economic Welfare, Genuine Progress Indicator, Pollution-sensitive Human Development Indicator, Sustainable Human Development Indicator and French Dashboard on Sustainable Development. A theoretical description of each index highlights their advantages and drawbacks, underlining the fact that no indicator is perfect and no one can give an exhaustive view of sustainable development. Therefore, the analysis of various indicators is necessary to evaluate sustainable development with accuracy. Empirical results of measures of well-being show that French development was improving between 1990 and 2000. Concerning sustainability, indicators support different conclusions. It seems that French development was weakly sustainable but unsustainable in the strong sense over the period examined.