News: Congress party claimed that the Indian economy should be measured in terms of the Global Misery Index (GMI)
Facts:
Misery Index
Origin: The first Misery Index was constructed by economist Art Okun in the 1960s. It was a simple sum of a nation’s annual inflation rate and its unemployment rate. The higher the index, the more the misery felt by average citizens.
Modifications:
- The Index has been modified several times, first by Robert Barro of Harvard and then by Prof. Steve Hanke of Johns Hopkins University
- Hanke’s Misery Index is the sum of the unemployment, inflation and bank lending rates, minus the percentage change in real GDP per capita.
- A higher Misery Index score reflects a higher level of “misery.”
