Tracing the Evolution of Wealth Measurement Approaches: Illustrating the Nature of Knowledge Production

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to briefly trace the main protagonists who have contributed to defining and measuring wealth, starting from the Stone Age up until the present day. It illustrates the changing nature of knowledge production in forming crucial concepts, where different economic theorists utilised different definitions and evaluations. These different economic theories, while defining economies, highlight a more important issue of recognising that the neoclassical concept that exists today is not an incontestable concept reflective of the present day economy, but a theoretical proposition that can be subject to change and alternative formulation. This continues to this very day with the onset of the knowledge revolution, and issues of environmental sustainability and social development. These all form an important part of wealth measurement but do not avail themselves to a study under the traditional economic theory. This limitation needs to be set against the pattern exhibited throughout this paper, namely, that wealth measurements were transformed in response to a need, to make them more appropriate to the actual facts of a changing, complex economic situation. It is no different now. The awareness of this factor is what makes an historical narrative of wealth and its measurement so important. By demonstrating this, it permits approaches to economics from a standpoint other than neoclassical.