Experimenting with a strong dual necessity approach to social progress

Shiri Cohen Kaminitz () and Nathan Sussman
Additional contact information
Shiri Cohen Kaminitz: The Hebrew University

Palgrave Communications, 2024, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Different social progress indices assess well-being and development differently and thus reflect distinct conceptions of social progress. Broadly, these conceptions fall into two categories: ‘subjective’—the attitudes of individuals; and ‘objective’—external standards. Our starting point is a strong ‘dual necessity’ claim, namely that the two categories of conception have joint-special significance. Such a strong dual necessity conception, when operationalized, demands very low compensability/degree of substitution between the two independent indices, objective and subjective. Experimenting with this idea, we hypothesize that implementing low substitution empirically influences outcomes. Previous research presented this concept and exemplified initial empirical outcomes. The present work enhances and broadens this research by employing the constant elasticity of substitution (CES) function, which allows for the adjustment of substitution levels and comparison of resulting rankings. Furthermore, we demonstrate the results using two different well-known and commonly used indices: Human Development Index (HDI) and Sustainable Development Goals Index (SDGI). Our findings show that using a low substitution approach alters the social progress rankings of many countries in comparison to the original components’ rankings and to a high substitution combination of the two. This holds particularly true for countries in the middle of the original rankings. The paper’s original contribution is that it establishes the CES function as a useful device for implementing the idea of ‘dual necessity.’ Importantly, by experimenting with low substitution, and exemplifying its empirical significance with the CES function, the paper also contributes to further validating a strong dual necessity conception and justifies its own measurement. Such measurement should be of value to social scientists, practitioners and policymakers who care for balanced social progress: social progress that does not neglect either of the two aspects (subjective or objective).

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-024-03891-9 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palcom:v:11:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-024-03891-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/palcomms/about

DOI: 10.1057/s41599-024-03891-9

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Palgrave Communications from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().