Studying macroeconomic indicators as powerful ideas

Macroeconomic indicators - especially inflation, gross domestic product growth, public deficits and unemployment - stand central in economic governance. Policy-makers use them to assess their economies’ health. Citizens evaluate politicians’ performance using them as yardsticks. But these indicators defy simple definition, and the formulae underlying them have varied across countries and over time. Particular choices have fundamental distributive consequences. This research agenda outlines how we might study macroeconomic indicators as powerful ideas and ask: why do we measure the economy the way we do? It illustrates the myriad ways in which macroeconomic indicators are embedded in contemporary social and political life, and it outlines how we can uncover both what power rests in these indicators and who has power over them. After path-breaking scholarship has demonstrated how consequential these indicators are, it is imperative to understand better which forces determine our choice for one indicator formula over its alternatives.