 Capability Sets as the Basis of a New Measure of Human DevelopmentWulf Gaertner and Yongsheng Xu Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, 2006, vol. 7, issue 3, 311-321 Abstract: Human development is about much more than growth in real income. It is about expanding the choices human beings have to lead lives that they value. The potential choices and their expansion can be captured by capability sets that consist of various functioning vectors. The standard of living is then reflected in these capability sets. This paper proposes a particular way of measuring the standard of living available either to an individual or household or to a whole nation, when the direction of the development of society represented by a reference functioning vector is uncertain. The basis for our theoretical analysis is Lancaster's characteristics approach to consumer theory, which is combined with Sen's concept of functionings. We provide an axiomatic characterization of the measure that we propose. Keywords: Functionings; Capabilities; Lancaster's theory of characteristics; Standard of living (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:jhudca:v:7:y:2006:i:3:p:311-321 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1080/14649880600815891 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Human Development and Capabilities is currently edited by Kathryn Rosenblum More articles in Journal of Human Development and Capabilities from Taylor & Francis Journals |
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