Growth and Human Development: Comparative Latin American Experience

Gustav Ranis () and Frances Stewart
Additional contact information
Gustav Ranis: Economic Growth Center, Yale University

Working Papers from Economic Growth Center, Yale University

Abstract: This paper seeks to examine the interdependence between economic growth (EG) and human development (HD). It is concerned with changes in per capita income and its two-way relationship with the basic societal objective of human development. Regressions across various Latin American countries are run for 1960-92. Country performance is separated into virtuous/vicious cycles or HD/EG lopsidedness. The study makes an attempt to correct the commonly held view that ensuring increases in economic growth automatically leads to advances in human development. Human development has to occur prior to or simultaneous with improvements in economic growth, if a country is to reach a virtuous cycle. The Latin American experience indicates that a balanced approach to development has to be adopted. It is imperative to focus on human development from the outset of any reform program, as policies that emphasize economic growth alone are futile in sustaining high levels of human development.

Keywords: Human Development; Economic Growth; Latin America (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 58 pages
Date: 2001-05
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.econ.yale.edu/growth_pdf/cdp826.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: GROWTH AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: COMPARATIVE LATIN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE (2001)
Working Paper: Growth and Human Development: Comparative Latin American Experience (2001)
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:egc:wpaper:826

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Economic Growth Center, Yale University Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Benjamin King ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).