GDP suggests that the period 1913–1950 is one of missed opportunities for improving living standards in Europe. However, life in Europe during these years improved significantly, as citizens experienced dramatic declines in mortality, working time and inequality. To measure the contribution of these aspects to broader welfare, I apply a new theoretically-grounded indicator that, contrary to previous measures used in the literature, allows for a direct comparison with GDP across countries and time. I find that income underestimates welfare growth significantly (up to 2.2 percent annually) and that cross-country differences are larger and more persistent than other welfare measures imply. This article calls for a reappraisal of the evolution of living standards during the period 1913–1950 and, more generally, presents an application of a new indicator to measure multi-dimensional welfare in historical contexts.

国内生产总值表明，1913-1950年是欧洲改善生活水平的错失机会之一。但是，由于公民的死亡率，工作时间和不平等现象急剧下降，这些年来欧洲的生活大大改善。为了衡量这些方面对更广泛的福利的贡献，我使用了一个新的理论基础指标，与文献中以前的方法相反，该指标允许与国家和时间之间的GDP进行直接比较。我发现收入大大低估了福利增长（每年高达2.2％），而且跨国差异比其他福利措施所暗示的更大，更持久。本文呼吁重新评估1913年至1950年期间的生活水平，并且更普遍地讲，