IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hdr/papers/hdrp-2010-33.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Review of HDI Critiques and Potential Improvements

Author

Listed:
  • Milorad Kovacevic

    (Human Development Report Office, UNDP)

Abstract

This paper reviews critiques of the Human Development Report over the last twenty years. The critiques are mostly related to the choice of indicators, to high correlation of HDI components, functional form of the HDI including normalization of component indicators, aggregation vs. multiplication, and issues related to weighting. A thorough analysis of the critiques leads us to a proposal for modification of the HDI.

Suggested Citation

  • Milorad Kovacevic, 2010. "Review of HDI Critiques and Potential Improvements," Human Development Research Papers (2009 to present) HDRP-2010-33, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
    • Handle: RePEc:hdr:papers:hdrp-2010-33
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2010/papers/HDRP_2010_33.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barro, Robert J. & Lee, Jong Wha, 2013. "A new data set of educational attainment in the world, 1950–2010," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 184-198.
    2. Lant Pritchett & Lawrence H. Summers, 1996. "Wealthier is Healthier," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 31(4), pages 841-868.
    3. Sardar Islam & Matthew Clarke, 2002. "The Relationship between Economic Development and Social Welfare: A New Adjusted GDP Measure of Welfare," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 201-229, February.
    4. Zhou, P. & Ang, B.W. & Poh, K.L., 2007. "A mathematical programming approach to constructing composite indicators," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 291-297, April.
    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. Bloom, David E. & Chen, Simiao & Kuhn, Michael & McGovern, Mark E. & Oxley, Les & Prettner, Klaus, 2020. "The economic burden of chronic diseases: Estimates and projections for China, Japan, and South Korea," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    2. Chiappini, Raphaël & Coupaud, Marine & Viaud, François, 2022. "Does attracting FDI affect population health? New evidence from a multi-dimensional measure of health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).
    3. Burns, Darren K. & Jones, Andrew P. & Goryakin, Yevgeniy & Suhrcke, Marc, 2017. "Is foreign direct investment good for health in low and middle income countries? An instrumental variable approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 74-82.
    4. Olper, Alessandro & Curzi, Daniele & Swinnen, Johan, 2018. "Trade liberalization and child mortality: A Synthetic Control Method," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 394-410.
    5. Weichun Chen & Judith A. Clarke & Nilanjana Roy, 2014. "Health and wealth: Short panel Granger causality tests for developing countries," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(6), pages 755-784, September.
    6. Stephan Klasen & Simon Lange, 2011. "Getting Progress Right: Measuring Progress Towards the MDGs Against Historical Trends," Courant Research Centre: Poverty, Equity and Growth - Discussion Papers 87, Courant Research Centre PEG, revised 20 Feb 2012.
    7. Ọláyínká Oyèkọ́lá, 2023. "Democracy Does Improve Health," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 166(1), pages 105-132, February.
    8. Juliana Jaramillo-Echeverri & Adolfo Meisel-Roca & María Teresa Ramírez-Giraldo, 2019. "More than 100 years of improvements in living standards: the case of Colombia," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 13(3), pages 323-366, September.
    9. Edwards, Ryan B., 2016. "Mining away the Preston curve," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 22-36.
    10. Kim, Dong-Hyeon & Lin, Shu-Chin, 2017. "Human capital and natural resource dependence," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 92-102.
    11. Spiteri, Jonathan & von Brockdorff, Philip, 2019. "Economic development and health outcomes: Evidence from cardiovascular disease mortality in Europe," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 224(C), pages 37-44.
    12. António Afonso & José Alves & Krzysztof Beck, 2022. "Pay and unemployment determinants of migration flows in the European Union," Working Papers REM 2022/0251, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, REM, Universidade de Lisboa.
    13. Lo Turco, Alessia & Maggioni, Daniela & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2019. "Financial dependence and growth: The role of input-output linkages," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 308-328.
    14. Ufuk Akcigit & Murat Celik & Daron Acemoglu, 2014. "Young, Restless and Creative: Openness to Disruption and Creative Innovations," 2014 Meeting Papers 377, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    15. Iamsiraroj, Sasi, 2016. "The foreign direct investment–economic growth nexus," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 116-133.
    16. Jungho Kim, 2023. "Female education and its impact on fertility," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 228-228, May.
    17. Markus Brueckner & Daniel Lederman, 2018. "Inequality and economic growth: the role of initial income," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 341-366, September.
    18. Rosario Crinò & Paolo Epifani, 2014. "Trade Imbalances, Export Structure and Wage Inequality," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0(576), pages 507-539, May.
    19. Marcén, Miriam & Molina, José Alberto & Morales, Marina, 2018. "The effect of culture on the fertility decisions of immigrant women in the United States," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 15-28.
    20. Färe, Rolf & Karagiannis, Giannis, 2014. "Benefit-of-the-doubt aggregation and the diet problem," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 33-35.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Composite index; well-being; marginal substitutability; equal weighting; aggregation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C43 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Index Numbers and Aggregation
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

    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-2010-33. 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 (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.