IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/jorsoc/v56y2005i8d10.1057_palgrave.jors.2601927.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A reassessment of the human development index via data envelopment analysis

Author

Listed:
  • D K Despotis

    (University of Piraeus)

Abstract

To consider different aspects of life when measuring human development, the United Nations Development Program introduced the Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI is a composite index of socioeconomic indicators that reflect three major dimensions of human development: longevity, knowledge and standard of living. In this paper, the assessment of the HDI is reconsidered in the light of data envelopment analysis (DEA). Instead of a simple rank of the countries, human development is benchmarked on the basis of empirical observations of best practice countries. First, on the same line as HDI, we develop a DEA-like model to assess the relative performance of the countries in human development. Then we extend our calculations with a post-DEA model to derive global estimates of a new development index by using common weights for the socioeconomic indicators. Finally, we introduce the transformation paradigm in the assessment of human development. We develop a DEA model to estimate the relative efficiency of the countries in converting income to knowledge and life opportunities.

Suggested Citation

  • D K Despotis, 2005. "A reassessment of the human development index via data envelopment analysis," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 56(8), pages 969-980, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:pal:jorsoc:v:56:y:2005:i:8:d:10.1057_palgrave.jors.2601927
    DOI: 10.1057/palgrave.jors.2601927
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2601927
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2601927?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. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    2. A Mukherjee & P Nath & M Pal, 2003. "Resource, service quality and performance triad: a framework for measuring efficiency of banking services," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 54(7), pages 723-735, July.
    3. Desai, Meghnad, 1991. "Human development : Concepts and measurement," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(2-3), pages 350-357, April.
    4. B B M Shao & W S Shu, 2004. "Productivity breakdown of the information and computing technology industries across countries," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 55(1), pages 23-33, January.
    5. D J Mayston, 2003. "Measuring and managing educational performance," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 54(7), pages 679-691, July.
    6. Hicks, Norman & Streeten, Paul, 1979. "Indicators of development: The search for a basic needs yardstick," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 7(6), pages 567-580, June.
    7. W F Bowlin & C J Renner & J M Rives, 2003. "A DEA study of gender equity in executive compensation," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 54(7), pages 751-757, July.
    8. Seiford, Lawrence M. & Zhu, Joe, 1999. "An investigation of returns to scale in data envelopment analysis," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 1-11, February.
    9. Neumayer, Eric, 2001. "The human development index and sustainability -- a constructive proposal," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 101-114, October.
    10. Raab, Raymond & Kotamraju, Pradeep & Haag, Stephen, 2000. "Efficient provision of child quality of life in less developed countries: conventional development indexes versus a programming approach to development indexes," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 51-67, March.
    11. D K Despotis, 2002. "Improving the discriminating power of DEA: focus on globally efficient units," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 53(3), pages 314-323, March.
    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. Despotis, D.K., 2005. "Measuring human development via data envelopment analysis: the case of Asia and the Pacific," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 385-390, October.
    2. R Ramanathan, 2005. "Estimating energy consumption of transport modes in India using DEA and application to energy and environmental policy," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 56(6), pages 732-737, June.
    3. Giménez, Víctor & Ayvar-Campos, Francisco Javier & Navarro-Chávez, José César Lenin, 2017. "Efficiency in the generation of social welfare in Mexico: A proposal in the presence of bad outputs," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 43-52.
    4. Blancard, Stéphane & Hoarau, Jean-François, 2013. "A new sustainable human development indicator for small island developing states: A reappraisal from data envelopment analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 623-635.
    5. Stéphane Blancard & Jean-François Hoarau, 2011. "Optimizing the new formulation of the United Nations' human development index: An empirical view from data envelopment analysis," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 31(1), pages 989-1003.
    6. Adler, Nicole & Yazhemsky, Ekaterina & Tarverdyan, Ruzanana, 2010. "A framework to measure the relative socio-economic performance of developing countries," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 73-88, June.
    7. 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.
    8. Mariano, Enzo Barberio & Sobreiro, Vinicius Amorim & Rebelatto, Daisy Aparecida do Nascimento, 2015. "Human development and data envelopment analysis: A structured literature review," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 33-49.
    9. Mangaraj, B.K. & Aparajita, Upali, 2020. "Constructing a generalized model of the human development index," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    10. Mina Baliamoune-Lutz, 2004. "On the Measurement of Human Well-being: Fuzzy Set Theory and Sen's Capability Approach," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2004-16, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    11. Ramanathan, Ramakrishnan, 2005. "An analysis of energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions in countries of the Middle East and North Africa," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 30(15), pages 2831-2842.
    12. Alexander Cotte Poveda, 2012. "Estimating Effectiveness of the Control of Violence and Socioeconomic Development in Colombia: An Application of Dynamic Data Envelopment Analysis and Data Panel Approach," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 105(3), pages 343-366, February.
    13. Ülengin, Füsun & Kabak, Özgür & Önsel, Sule & Aktas, Emel & Parker, Barnett R., 2011. "The competitiveness of nations and implications for human development," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 16-27, March.
    14. Kaoru Tone, 2001. "On Returns to Scale under Weight Restrictions in Data Envelopment Analysis," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 31-47, July.
    15. Jesús Peiró-Palomino & Andrés J. Picazo-Tadeo, 2018. "Assessing well-being in European regions. Does government quality matter?," Working Papers 2018/06, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).
    16. Wijesiri, Mahinda & Yaron, Jacob & Meoli, Michele, 2017. "Assessing the financial and outreach efficiency of microfinance institutions: Do age and size matter?," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 63-76.
    17. Harry P. Bowen & Wim Moesen, 2009. "Composite Competitiveness Indicators With Endogenous Versus Predetermined Weights : An Application to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index," Discussion Paper Series 2009-02, McColl School of Business, Queens University of Charlotte.
    18. Taleb, Mushtaq & Khalid, Ruzelan & Ramli, Razamin & Ghasemi, Mohammad Reza & Ignatius, Joshua, 2022. "An integrated bi-objective data envelopment analysis model for measuring returns to scale," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 296(3), pages 967-979.
    19. Qing Yang & Lingmei Fu & Xingxing Liu & Mengying Cheng, 2018. "Evaluating the Efficiency of Municipal Solid Waste Management in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-23, November.
    20. Zhu, Joe, 2003. "Imprecise data envelopment analysis (IDEA): A review and improvement with an application," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(3), pages 513-529, February.

    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:pal:jorsoc:v:56:y:2005:i:8:d:10.1057_palgrave.jors.2601927. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    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.