Neo GDP

We are exploring a measure of the wealth that keeps an economy working. GDP measures annual production. Neo GDP asks whether we are strengthening or consuming the assets that make future prosperity possible.

Our starting point is infrastructure: roads, bridges, electricity, water, and broadband. We want to understand the condition of these systems, the services they provide, and whether investment is keeping pace with deterioration.

Our work

Durable GDP

Durable GDP is our first research prototype. Its Civic Wealth Index lets you explore infrastructure systems and illustrative state scores. The aim is to make changes in productive capacity visible, with evidence that people can inspect.

Explore the prototype.

The figures are illustrative. We have not yet established a validated measure, populated it with real data, or demonstrated that it improves an allocation decision.

What we would measure

Infrastructure wealth is an asset question. It is related to annual output, but it is not interchangeable with GDP. We propose examining five dimensions before combining them into an index:

Each component should disclose its sources, dates, coverage, assumptions, and uncertainty. Any combined score would need justified weights and sensitivity testing. Missing evidence should remain visible, and confidence in the data should be reported separately from infrastructure performance.

A monetary account of infrastructure wealth would be a separate research effort: additions and improvements, less depreciation and extraordinary losses. It requires consistent valuation and careful treatment of maintenance and double counting.

First study: bridge investment

We propose starting with one state and one decision: which bridge rehabilitation projects should receive limited public funding next?

Condition alone does not determine investment priority. A useful analysis would also consider traffic, detour burden, access to critical destinations, project costs, and expected benefits. The result should explain the evidence behind a recommendation and the assumptions that could change it.

The next step is to work through a recent funding decision with a public capital allocator, then test whether one credible dataset would have improved that decision.

AI-assisted measurement

AI agents could help extract inspection records, reconcile asset inventories, and flag inconsistencies. The proposed workflow is to gather source evidence, estimate condition and useful life, and aggregate results with uncertainty intact.

Every derived claim should retain its source and date. Estimates must be distinguishable from observations, with human review for consequential judgments.

Neo GDP is an early research project by Abhay Venkatesh.

If you allocate infrastructure capital, we would like to understand a decision where better condition data could change where you invest. Get in touch.