Human development is about the fulfillment of human needs, and economics, like other social sciences, is about how to help promote it. The material and immaterial dimensions of human needs have always been present in economic thinking, with words like utility, welfare, and well-being being systematically used as proxies for happiness.

However, mainstream economics has traditionally put the focus on material needs, largely disregarding important intangibles for human welfare such as fairness and nature. Post-WWII economic growth analysis was solely about GDP per capita growth, with conventional models ignoring whether that growth was leading to increasing inequality. Likewise, analysis focused on the stocks of labor and physical capital, taking for granted the stock of natural capital, as if the biosphere were unlimited.