Inclusive Development Index, top 10 countries

By traditional standards, the global economy is experiencing something of a renaissance. For the first time since the 2008 financial crisis, every major region in the world is growing at the same time. But there remains a growing unease that measuring the health of an economy by GDP alone disguises the truly burning issues—namely, inequality.

Gross domestic product­—the sum of the goods and services produced by a nation—is an insufficient measure of national economic performance, according to a new report from the World Economic Forum (WEF), which is hosting its annual gathering of the global elite in Davos this week.

Dozens of political leaders will be at the conference, in high spirits given the strength of the global economy but not necessarily comfortable in their positions. Since last year’s gathering, for example, British prime minister Theresa May lost her parliamentary majority and German chancellor Angela Merkel is a last-minute addition to the schedule after cobbling together a governing coalition (probably), months after her country’s most recent election.

“Decades of prioritizing economic growth over social equity has led to historically high levels of wealth and income inequality,” the WEF report says. With these disparities comes unhappiness and […]