Improving Human Development: A Long-run View

Leandro Prados de la Escosura

No 7982, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: The pessimistic flavour of the Human Development Reports appears to be in contradiction with their own numbers as developing countries fare comparatively better in human development than in per capita GDP terms. This paper attempts to bridge this gap by providing a new, ?improved? human development index [IHDI], informed by welfare economics. The IHDI is presented here alongside the UNDP?s HDI for the world and its main regions since the late nineteenth century. Social dimensions in the IHDI are derived, following Kakwani (1993), with a convex achievement function, while a geometric average is employed to combine its dimensions (longevity, knowledge, and income). Thus, the IHDI does not conceal the gap between rich and poor countries and casts a much less optimistic view than the conventional UNDP index, while fits with the UNDP concern for international differences. The paper?s findings highlight main weaknesses in human development dimensions of present-day developing countries.

Keywords: Human development; Life expectancy; Education; Per capita gdp (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I00 N30 O15 O50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-09
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

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Journal Article: IMPROVING HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: A LONG‐RUN VIEW (2010)
Working Paper: Improving human development: a long-run view (2010)
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