, Columnist
In Defense of Good Old Per Capita GDP
The traditional way to compare countries works as well as any of the more sophisticated alternatives.
Organizing principles.
Photographer: David Williams/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
The quest to replace per capita GDP as a growth indicator has officially come full circle: If you aggregate the latest version -- just unveiled at Davos by the World Economic Forum -- with previous attempts, the top of the resulting list isn't that different from the original recipe.