What are indicators of ineffective policy?

What are more creative, but valid indicators that I could use to measure the effects of Chinese trade on development in sub-Saharan Africa, other than GDP or the Human Development Index?

• Many scientific articles base the consequences of Chinese presence in Africa either on (realistic, liberal) political theories; on China’s ‘going-out’ policy (which insinuates that there is only one sort of Chinese actor, that naturally conforms with government values); or on claims about the amount of investments in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) made by the Chinese government. However, due to the possible diplomatic or tactical intentions of these claims, and the lack of proof of their actual implementation, no one knows what really happens with what amount of money in which African country. Or even in how many projects the Chinese are actually engaged at the moment. All of the articles agree that there is not enough reliable information available due to the lack of transparency, and the lack of trustworthy institutions. Some researchers state that Beijing, although it is seen as a monolithic actor, lost track on China’s investments as a whole, since Chinese cities and private actors are investing on their own behalf. Simultaneously, GDP (and indirectly the HDI) is a questionable indicator for development. Due to many constraints it has not been calculated properly in most African countries during the last few decades.  Many of the current fluctuations in GDP-scores can thus be generated by changes in measurement tactics, not in changes in the level of development. Furthermore, putting the miscalculations and the dubious results aside, GDP can also be seen as “empty” or non-specific. What is it explaining exactly? The following (non-scientific) article explains this and it helpfully suggests a few other indexes, which however still do not indicate anything about China's influence (http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/economics-blog/2013/may/08/measuring-growth-gdp-africa). I am (desperately) in search of other measures or indicators. And I think I have a few "search directions" with potential (please correct me if I'm wrong). I would be eternally grateful if someone could help me with finding data on: the amount of Chinese projects in SSA per country; the nature of these projects; the amount of African start-ups per country/or per region -preferably around Chinese infrastructure projects-; economical spillovers generated by China's trade. More specifically put: whether Africans are actually using the new infrastructure; how many Africans are educated within Chinese companies; How many Africans are working for Chinese companies). I do not expect to find enough information in order to actually compare China's influence with the same aspects of Western influence on the economic development in SSA. However, I still do not understand why and on what basis so many people seem to be able to do that. Even here on Quora.

• Answer:

  You might check out the Social Progress Indicator, which was created by Michael Porter of Harvard: http://www.socialprogressimperative.org/data/spi The New York Times has an excellent answer to your question: The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has studied its own http://www.oecd.org/document/7/0,3343,en_2649_34325_35995079_1_1_1_37443,00.html that take into account leisure. Others have proposed the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_of_Sustainable_Economic_Welfare, which factors in both pollution and income distribution, and the http://www.rprogress.org/sustainability_indicators/genuine_progress_indicator.htm, which tries to determine if economic growth has improved a country’s welfare. Alternative efforts try to supplement or supplant traditional income-based measures with happiness-based measures. These include the http://www.happyplanetindex.org/, a http://www.gnh-movement.org/ measure and work on http://www.krueger.princeton.edu/Toward%20Well-Being.pdf, which our Daily Economist http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/author/alan-b-krueger/ has studied extensively. Although Oxfam seems to have an arguably better explanation--plus as an NGO in the field--they may arguably be more qualified as a source: http://www.oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/?p=13574 At a minimum, the Oxfam suggestions are certainly on par with the NYT options. I seem to remember the UN having a number of high powered stats for national economies.  It may include some alternatives or the basis (aka raw materials) of creating an alternative. As I recall the UN (or a related organization) had a data visualization-type tool which users could leverage.  Its possible though that it may have been connected to Millenium Development Goals, so only measuring certain.  Arguably you could use those I guess--but I don't understand your entire context/purpose/goal fully.  If I were to guess, I would say this is the website: http://www.uis.unesco.org/Pages/default.aspx  (I'm pretty sure I posted it in the Poverty group I run on Quora).  You might also check here: http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/research-datasets-analytical-tools  The World Bank also has data available here: http://data.worldbank.org  (not sure how useful any of these 3 is, but hopefully they can provide some insights beyond the core recommedations regarding alternatives to GDP).  The UN also seems to have a PPP standard that is used to calculate GDP.  For instance this is a data set on that: http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/GDP-PPP-based-table Update: This links to an Economist article on this topic: Source: http://www.triplepundit.com/2013/04/michael-porter-social-progress-index-spi/ http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/30/alternatives-to-the-gdp/