IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hdr/papers/hdrp-2010-29.html

The Political Economy of Human Development

Author

Listed:
  • Robin Harding

    (New York University)

  • Leonard Wantchekon

    (New York University)

Abstract

What are the causes and consequences of human development? In the twenty years since the publication of the first Human Development Report (HDR), political scientists have invested a great deal of time and effort into answering this question. So what do we know? In this paper we seek to review these labors, the fruits of which can be summarized as follows. Democracy causes, but is not caused by, economic development. While total economic growth is no higher as a result of democratic institutions, they are more conducive than non-democratic alternatives to the growth of per capita income, which is an important aspect of individual well-being. Democratic institutions are also conducive to improvements in the two other essential elements of human development, longevity and knowledge - democracy has a positive effect on indicators of education and health. Given these findings, it seems pertinent to ask why democracy has such effects. Our conclusion from the literature is that the positive impact of democratic institutions stems from their provision of accountability structures. But in providing these structures, what democracy offers is the opportunity for human development. It is no guarantee of its realization, and in the absence of factors such as information and participation this opportunity can be missed.

Suggested Citation

  • Robin Harding & Leonard Wantchekon, 2010. "The Political Economy of Human Development," Human Development Research Papers (2009 to present) HDRP-2010-29, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
    • Handle: RePEc:hdr:papers:hdrp-2010-29
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2010/papers/HDRP_2010_29.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James M. Snyder & David Strömberg, 2010. "Press Coverage and Political Accountability," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 118(2), pages 355-408, April.
    2. Castelló-Climent, Amparo, 2008. "On the distribution of education and democracy," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 179-190, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. David Mayer-Foulkes, 2013. "A Cross-country Causal Panorama of Human Development and Sustainability," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(2), pages 235-251, May.
    2. Cristina Balaceanu & Diana Apostol, 2014. "Gdp As A Measuring Instrument For The Human Development," Annals - Economy Series, Constantin Brancusi University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 6, pages 69-72, December.
    3. Kwabena Asomanin Anaman & Gbensuglo Alidu Bukari, 2019. "Political Economy Analysis of the Macroeconomic Impact of National Elections in Ghana During the Fourth Republican Era, 1992 to 2016," Applied Economics and Finance, Redfame publishing, vol. 6(3), pages 28-44, May.
    4. Dash, Bharatee Bhushan & Mukherjee, Sacchidananda, 2013. "Does Political Competition Influence Human Development? Evidence from the Indian States," Working Papers 13/118, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
    5. Gbensuglo, Alidu Bukari, 2017. "Political Economy Analysis of Elections in Ghana's Fourth Republic (1992 To 2016)," Miscellaneous Publications 358826, University of Ghana, Institute of Statistical Social & Economic Research (ISSER).
    6. José Ángel Alcántara-Lizárraga & Alexandra Jima-González, 2022. "Accountability, Corruption, and Opposition Groups: Evidence from Latin America," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-14, November.
    7. David Mayer-Foulkes, 2011. "A Causal Panorama of Cross-Country Human Development," DEGIT Conference Papers c016_049, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.

    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. Anders Gustafsson, 2019. "Busy doing nothing: why politicians implement inefficient policies," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 282-299, September.
    2. Bernhardt, Lea & Dewenter, Ralf & Thomas, Tobias, 2023. "Measuring partisan media bias in US newscasts from 2001 to 2012," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    3. Ralf Dewenter & Uwe Dulleck & Tobias Thomas, 2016. "Does the 4th Estate Deliver? Towards a More Direct Measure of Political Media Bias," NCER Working Paper Series 116, National Centre for Econometric Research.
    4. Thu Hien DAO & Frédéric DOCQUIER & Mathilde MAUREL & Pierre SCHAUS, 2017. "Global Migration in the 20th and 21st Centuries: the Unstoppable Force of Demography," Working Paper 96d89f28-0e80-4703-9b33-6, Agence française de développement.
    5. Fabio Manca, 2011. "Education, Catch-up and Growth in Spain," INVESTIGACIONES REGIONALES - Journal of REGIONAL RESEARCH, Asociación Española de Ciencia Regional, issue 20, pages 5-28.
    6. Sharma, Priyanka & Wagman, Liad, 2020. "Advertising and Voter Data in Asymmetric Political Contests," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    7. Garz, Marcel & Maaß, Sabrina, 2021. "Cartels in the European Union, antitrust action, and public attention," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 186(C), pages 533-547.
    8. Marco Manacorda & Andrea Tesei, 2020. "Liberation Technology: Mobile Phones and Political Mobilization in Africa," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(2), pages 533-567, March.
    9. Biavaschi, Costanza & Facchini, Giovanni, 2020. "Immigrant Franchise and Immigration Policy: Evidence from the Progressive Era," IZA Discussion Papers 13195, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Balbuzanov, Ivan & Gars, Jared & Stalinski, Mateusz & Tjernström, Emilia, 2025. "Incentivizing Engagement: Experimental Evidence on Journalist Performance Pay," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 763, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    11. Bernecker, Andreas, 2014. "Do politicians shirk when reelection is certain? Evidence from the German parliament," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 55-70.
    12. Milena Djourelova & Ruben Durante & Gregory J. Martin, 2021. "The Impact of Online Competition on Local Newspapers: Evidence from the Introduction of Craigslist," CESifo Working Paper Series 9090, CESifo.
    13. Filipe R. Campante & Quoc-Anh Do, 2014. "Isolated Capital Cities, Accountability, and Corruption: Evidence from US States," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(8), pages 2456-2481, August.
    14. León, Gianmarco, 2017. "Turnout, political preferences and information: Experimental evidence from Peru," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 56-71.
    15. Doris A. Oberdabernig & Stefan Humer & Jesus Crespo Cuaresma, 2018. "Democracy, Geography and Model Uncertainty," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 65(2), pages 154-185, May.
    16. Nicola Mastrorocco & Arianna Ornaghi, 2025. "Who Watches the Watchmen? Local News and Police Behavior in the United States," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 17(2), pages 285-318, May.
    17. Dewenter, Ralf & Dulleck, Uwe & Thomas, Tobias, 2018. "The political coverage index and its application to government capture," Research Papers 6, EcoAustria – Institute for Economic Research.
    18. Yongkang Lin & Qinghua Song & Lingyun He, 2025. "Can the green finance reform and innovation pilot policy promote green technology innovation?—a novelty evidence from both polluting companies and city commercial banks in China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 8403-8431, April.
    19. Milena Djourelova & Ruben Durante, 2019. "Media attention and strategic timing in politics: Evidence from U.S. presidential executive orders," Economics Working Papers 1675, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • I00 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - General - - - General
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:hdr:papers:hdrp-2010-29. 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: HDRO/UNDP The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask HDRO/UNDP to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/hdundus.html .

    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.