IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jhudca/v17y2016i3p415-425.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Inequality Decomposition and Human Development

Author

Listed:
  • Ricardo Martínez

Abstract

The human development index (HDI), which takes into account achievements in health, education, and income, is considered a good measure of the social attainments of a country. The global cross-country distribution of human development is imbalanced and the degree of convergence is low. This inequality has varied during recent years. In this paper we present evidence that improvements in the convergence of human development across countries are mostly attributed to education, whereas health and income have made poor contributions. To do this we exploit the multiplicative structure of the HDI and several decompositions of the Theil inequality index.

Suggested Citation

  • Ricardo Martínez, 2016. "Inequality Decomposition and Human Development," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 415-425, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jhudca:v:17:y:2016:i:3:p:415-425
    DOI: 10.1080/19452829.2016.1155544
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/19452829.2016.1155544
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/19452829.2016.1155544?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. J. Ram Pillarisetti, 1997. "An empirical note on inequality in the world development indicators," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(3), pages 145-147.
    2. Branko Milanovic & Shlomo Yitzhak, 2006. "Decomposing World Income Distribution: Does The World Have A Middle Class?," IBT Journal of Business Studies (JBS), Ilma University, Faculty of Management Science, vol. 2(2), pages 88-110.
    3. Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez, 2014. "Inequality in the long run," PSE - Labex "OSE-Ouvrir la Science Economique" halshs-01053609, HAL.
    4. Duro, Juan Antonio & Esteban, Joan, 1998. "Factor decomposition of cross-country income inequality, 1960-1990," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 269-275, September.
    5. Sen, Amartya, 1997. "On Economic Inequality," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198292975.
    6. Jorge Alcalde‐Unzu & Roberto Ezcurra & Pedro Pascual, 2009. "Cross‐country disparities in health‐care expenditure: a factor decomposition," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(4), pages 479-485, April.
    7. Jeni Klugman & Francisco Rodríguez & Hyung-Jin Choi, 2011. "The HDI 2010: new controversies, old critiques," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 9(2), pages 249-288, June.
    8. Ravallion, Martin, 2012. "Troubling tradeoffs in the Human Development Index," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 201-209.
    9. Martin Ravallion, 2011. "The human development index: a response to Klugman, Rodriguez and Choi," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 9(3), pages 475-478, September.
    10. Milanovic, Branko & Yitzhaki, Shlomo, 2002. "Decomposing World Income Distribution: Does the World Have a Middle Class?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 48(2), pages 155-178, June.
    11. Satya Chakravarty, 2011. "A reconsideration of the tradeoffs in the new human development index," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 9(3), pages 471-474, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Débora Pereira & Caroline Mota, 2016. "Human Development Index Based on ELECTRE TRI-C Multicriteria Method: An Application in the City of Recife," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 125(1), pages 19-45, January.
    2. Jesús Crespo Cuaresma & Wolfgang Lutz, 2015. "The demography of human development and climate change vulnerability: A projection exercise," Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, vol. 13(1), pages 241-262.
    3. Mariano Luque & Salvador Pérez-Moreno & Beatriz Rodríguez, 2016. "Measuring Human Development: A Multi-criteria Approach," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 125(3), pages 713-733, February.
    4. Martin Ravallion, 2011. "The human development index: a response to Klugman, Rodriguez and Choi," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 9(3), pages 475-478, September.
    5. Mehmet Pinar, 2019. "Multidimensional Well-Being and Inequality Across the European Regions with Alternative Interactions Between the Well-Being Dimensions," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 144(1), pages 31-72, July.
    6. Panagiotis Ravanos & Giannis Karagiannis, 2021. "A VEA Benefit-of-the-Doubt Model for the HDI," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 27-46, May.
    7. Çakır, Mustafa Yavuz & Kabundi, Alain, 2013. "Trade shocks from BRIC to South Africa: A global VAR analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 190-202.
    8. Christophe Muller & Asha Kannan & Roland Alcindor, 2016. "Multidimensional Poverty in Seychelles," Working Papers halshs-01264444, HAL.
    9. Allanson, Paul, 2014. "Income stratification and between-group inequality," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 124(2), pages 227-230.
    10. Leandro Prados de la Escosura, 2021. "Augmented human development in the age of globalization," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 74(4), pages 946-975, November.
    11. Almas Heshmati, 2006. "Continental And Sub-Continental Income Inequality," The IUP Journal of Applied Economics, IUP Publications, vol. 0(1), pages 7-52, January.
    12. Ravallion, Martin, 2010. "The Developing World's Bulging (but Vulnerable) Middle Class," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 445-454, April.
    13. Ms. Evridiki Tsounta & Anayochukwu Osueke, 2014. "What is Behind Latin America’s Declining Income Inequality?," IMF Working Papers 2014/124, International Monetary Fund.
    14. C�line Bonnefond & Matthieu Cl�ment & Fran�ois Combarnous, 2015. "In search of the elusive Chinese urban middle class: an exploratory analysis," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1), pages 41-59, March.
    15. Leandro Prados de la Escosura, 2015. "World Human Development: 1870–2007," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 61(2), pages 220-247, June.
    16. Bourguignon, François & Bussolo, Maurizio, 2013. "Income Distribution in Computable General Equilibrium Modeling," Handbook of Computable General Equilibrium Modeling, in: Peter B. Dixon & Dale Jorgenson (ed.), Handbook of Computable General Equilibrium Modeling, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 1383-1437, Elsevier.
    17. Yang, Lin, 2018. "Measuring well-being: a multidimensional index integrating subjective well-being and preferences," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 87789, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. Stephen Morse, 2013. "Bottom Rail on Top: The Shifting Sands of Sustainable Development Indicators as Tools to Assess Progress," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(6), pages 1-21, May.
    19. repec:ilo:ilowps:485512 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Cossio Muñoz, Fernando, 2006. "Informe de Equidad Fiscal de Bolivia: Incidencia Distributiva de la Política Fiscal [Social Incidence of the Fiscal Policy in Bolivia]," MPRA Paper 91343, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    21. Michel Strawczynski, 2014. "The optimal inheritance tax in the presence of investment in education," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 21(4), pages 768-795, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:jhudca:v:17:y:2016:i:3:p:415-425. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CJHD20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.