Estimating the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) for the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 2002 to 2016, as a tool for public policy decision making.

This paper estimates the genuine progress indicator (GPI) for the state of Rio de Janeiro (RJ), Brazil, from 2002 to 2016 as an alternative indicator to the gross domestic product (GDP). Methodological approach was based on GPI 2.0 (Talberth in EE 142:1–11, 2017) with necessary adjustments due to geographical and biological specificities and currency conversions. For the calculations, primary and secondary data sources were consulted, both from public agencies and private institutions. Three main results were clearly observed: (1) the relation GPI/GDP fluctuated between 22 and 31% in the period 2002–2016; (2) even with a decline in Rio de Janeiro GDP from 2014 to 2016, due to Brazilian economic crisis, the GPI still increased in those years and (3) despite this continuous growth of GPI, its average yearly growth rate was 7,95%, while GDP, even with its 2014–2016 decrease, showed a higher average growth rate of 9,30% per year. Results also show that public policies in RJ should focus on jobs creation, investments in renewable energy and improving public transport, actions that are related to variables that, proportionally, most negatively affected the GPI. On the other hand, policies aiming to preserve vegetation cover should be intensified, since services of protected natural capital were the ones that contributed most positively to the indicator. This approach aims to increase GPI in the state and, consequently, improve the quality of life of the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]