Download pdf
Looking Beyond Economic Metrics: How the Development in Socialist Economies Challenge the Mainstream Indicator
- 1 Beijing Haidian Kaiwen Academy
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
This study assesses the limitations of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a major indicator of the development of socialist economies through a comparative analysis of China’s socialist market economy and Cuba’s planned economy. The analysis showcases that China’s mixed economic structure, which combines market mechanisms with state control, has achieved growth, but many public services and state assets are undervalued by traditional GDP measure. Similarly, Cuba’s state-dominated economy produces extraordinary social outcomes in education and healthcare, and GDP cannot fully measure its contributions to the social development which means that the non-economic benefits brought by such governmental investments were undervalued due to statistical difficulties created by current GDP metric. Both examples uncovered the internal bias of GDP against monetized transactions, which ignores socialist economies’ priorities. To reduce these gaps, the study recommends combining GDP with other multidimensional metrics, integrating social welfare indicators and collective asset valuations. This hybrid approach could better reflect the development goals of the socialist system, emphasizing collective welfare rather than market-centered growth.
Keywords
socialist economies, non-market welfare, development measurement
[1]. World Bank. (2023) Beyond Market Metrics: Evaluating Non-Market Welfare in National Accounts. In Global Development Report 2023: Migrants, Refugees, and Societies. Washington, DC: World Bank Publications.
[2]. United Nations. (2015) Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. General Assembly Resolution, A/RES/70/1.
[3]. Stiglitz, J. E., Sen, A. and Fitoussi, J. P. (2010) Mismeasuring our lives: Why GDP doesn’t add up (1st ed.). New York: The New Press.
[4]. CEIC Database. (2023) Global Economic Indicators: Cuba and China. Retrieved from https://www.ceicdata.com
[5]. Kornai, J. (2016) The system paradigm revisited. Acta Oeconomica, 66(2), 147–182.
[6]. Sen, A. (1999) Development as freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[7]. Chang, H. J. (2014) Economics: The User’s Guide. London: Pelican Books.
[8]. Mesa-Lago, C. and Pérez-López, J. F. (2013) Cuba under Raúl Castro: Assessing the reforms. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
[9]. Domínguez, J. I., Pérez Villanueva, O. E. and Barberia, L. (2018) The Cuban economy in a new era: An agenda for change toward durable development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[10]. Fleurbaey, M. and Blanchet, D. (2013) Beyond GDP: Measuring welfare and assessing sustainability. New York: Oxford University Press USA.
[11]. Liu, S. (2025) China’s Economic Transformation: The Socialist Market Economy in Practice. Beijing: People’s Press.
[12]. World Bank. (2024) China Social Welfare and Development Report. Washington: World Bank Publications.
[13]. National Healthcare Security Administration. (2024). 2023 Statistical Bulletin on National Healthcare Security Development. Retrieved from https://www.nhsa.gov.cn/art/2024/7/25/art_7_13340.html
[14]. World Bank. (2022) China’s High-Speed Rail Development. Washington: World Bank Publications.
[15]. Cheng, C. (2004) Measuring development in hybrid economies. Socialist Studies, 6(3), 45–60.
[16]. Brandt, L. and Rawski, T. G. (2019) Policy, regulation and innovation in China’s electricity and telecom industries. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[17]. Ritter, A. R. M. (2018) Cuba’s economic transformation and the emerging market economy. Latin American Perspectives, 45(4), 36–54.
[18]. Hu, A. and Men, H. (2016) The rise of modern China: Comprehensive national power and strategic assets. Beijing: China Economic Publishing House.
Cite this article
Li,C. (2025). Looking Beyond Economic Metrics: How the Development in Socialist Economies Challenge the Mainstream Indicator. Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media,97,1-5.
Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
Disclaimer/Publisher's Note
The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s). EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.
About volume
Volume title: Proceeding of ICGPSH 2025 Symposium: The Globalization of Connection: Language, Supply Chain, Tariff, and Trade Wars
© 2024 by the author(s). Licensee EWA Publishing, Oxford, UK. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Authors who
publish this series agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this
series.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published
version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial
publication in this series.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and
during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See
Open access policy for details).