IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pav/demwpp/demwp0091.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Why Gross National Disposable Income should substitute Gross National Income

Author

Listed:
  • Clara Capelli

    (Department of Economics and Management, University of Pavia)

  • Gianni Vaggi

    (Department of Economics and Management, University of Pavia)

Abstract

The Gross National Income (GNI) is often used as an indicator for a country’s living standards. Yet, it does not record unilateral transfers and notably remittances, which in the last decades have gained growing importance as a source of income for developing countries. Gross National Disposable Income (GNDI), includes both income and transfers and provides a much better account of people’s actually available income. However GNDI is sometimes confused with the GNI and is rarely available in major reports. This paper fills this gap by calculating the GNDI for all the countries in the World Bank database and it discusses the use of GNDI for 27 countries amongst the world top remittance receivers. We show that GNDI is much more informative than GNI and is a much more reliable basis for policy making in developing countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Clara Capelli & Gianni Vaggi, 2014. "Why Gross National Disposable Income should substitute Gross National Income," DEM Working Papers Series 091, University of Pavia, Department of Economics and Management.
    • Handle: RePEc:pav:demwpp:demwp0091
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dem-web.unipv.it/web/docs/dipeco/quad/ps/RePEc/pav/demwpp/DEMWP0091.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ajit Singh, 2003. "Capital Account Liberalization, Free Long-Term Capital Flows, Financial Crises and Economic Development," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 29(2), pages 191-216, Spring.
    2. Gianni Vaggi & Annalisa Prizzon, 2014. "On the sustainability of external debt: is debt relief enough?," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 38(5), pages 1155-1169.
    3. Nigel Driffield & Chris Jones, 2013. "Impact of FDI, ODA and Migrant Remittances on Economic Growth in Developing Countries: A Systems Approach," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 25(2), pages 173-196, April.
    4. Louka T. Katseli & Robert E.B. Lucas & Theodora Xenogiani, 2006. "Effects of Migration on Sending Countries: What Do We Know?," OECD Development Centre Working Papers 250, OECD Publishing.
    5. Giulia Bettin & Andrea F. Presbitero & Nikola L. Spatafora, 2017. "Remittances and Vulnerability in Developing Countries," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 31(1), pages 1-23.
    6. 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.
    7. Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 2006. "The World Distribution of Income: Falling Poverty and … Convergence, Period," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(2), pages 351-397.
    8. 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).
    9. Andy Sumner, 2013. "Global Poverty, Aid, and Middle-Income Countries: Are the Country Classifications Moribund or is Global Poverty in the Process of 'Nationalizing'?," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2013-062, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. Sumner, Andy, 2013. "Global Poverty, Aid, and Middle-Income Countries: Are the Country Classifications Moribund or is Global Poverty in the Process of 'Nationalizing'?," WIDER Working Paper Series 062, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    11. Ibrahim Sirkeci & Jeffrey H. Cohen & Dilip Ratha, 2012. "Migration and Remittances during the Global Financial Crisis and Beyond," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 13092, December.
    12. Adams, Richard Jr. & Page, John, 2003. "Poverty, Inequality and Growth in Selected Middle East and North Africa Countries, 1980-2000," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(12), pages 2027-2048, December.
    13. Editors The, 2007. "From the Editors," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 1-5, June.
    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. Sochi Iwuoha & Joseph I. Onochie, 2022. "Time Series Characteristics of Canada’s Beyond GDP Indicators," Advances in Management and Applied Economics, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 12(5), pages 1-6.

    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. Clara Capelli & Gianni Vaggi, 2016. "Why Gross National Disposable Income Should Replace Gross National Income," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 47(2), pages 223-239, March.
    2. Clara Capelli & Gianni Vaggi, 2013. "A better indicator of standards of living: The Gross National Disposable Income," DEM Working Papers Series 062, University of Pavia, Department of Economics and Management.
    3. Montfort Mlachila & René Tapsoba & Sampawende J. A. Tapsoba, 2017. "A Quality of Growth Index for Developing Countries: A Proposal," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 134(2), pages 675-710, November.
    4. Imene Guetat & Dorsaf Sridi, 2017. "Institutional quality effect on remittances in MENA region," Middle East Development Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(1), pages 84-100, January.
    5. Giulia Bettin & Alberto Zazzaro, 2018. "The Impact of Natural Disasters on Remittances to Low- and Middle-Income Countries," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(3), pages 481-500, March.
    6. Vincenzo Marinello & Chiara Di Puma, 2020. "The Human Development Index: a critical evaluation and a new proposal," RIEDS - Rivista Italiana di Economia, Demografia e Statistica - The Italian Journal of Economic, Demographic and Statistical Studies, SIEDS Societa' Italiana di Economia Demografia e Statistica, vol. 74(2), pages 29-38, April-Jun.
    7. Juan Pablo Celemín & Guillermo Ángel Velázquez, 2018. "Spatial Analysis of the Relationship Between a Life Quality Index, HDI and Poverty in the Province of Buenos Aires and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, Argentina," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 140(1), pages 57-77, November.
    8. Meysonnat, Aline & Muysken, Joan & Zon, Adriaan van, 2015. "Poverty traps: the neglected role of vitality," MERIT Working Papers 2015-052, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    9. Özşahin, Şerife & Üçler, Gülbahar, 2017. "Asymmetric Relationship between Institutional Quality and Remittance Inflows: Empirical Evidence for Turkey," Bulletin of Economic Theory and Analysis, BETA Journals, vol. 2(3), pages 189-204, July-Sept.
    10. Albino Prada & Patricio Sánchez-Fernández, 2019. "Transforming Economic Growth into Inclusive Development: An International Analysis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 145(1), pages 437-457, August.
    11. Farid Farid, 2014. "The impact of exchange rate policy on remittances in Morocco: A Threshold VAR analysis," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 34(4), pages 2351-2360.
    12. Nicola Amendola & Giacomo Gabbuti & Giovanni Vecchi, 2018. "On the use of composite indices in economic history. Lessons from Italy, 1861-2017," HHB Working Papers Series 11, The Historical Household Budgets Project.
    13. Undp, 2011. "HDR 2011 - Sustainability and Equity: A Better Future for All," Human Development Report (1990 to present), Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), number hdr2011, September.
    14. Tamas Novak, 2015. "Innovative finance for development - Instruments of social integration and responsibility in lower-middle-income countries (LMICs)," IWE Working Papers 212, Institute for World Economics - Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    15. Lukas Schrott & Martin Gaechter & Engelbert Theurl, 2015. "Regional Development in Advanced Countries: A Within-country Application of the Human Development Index for Austria," DANUBE: Law and Economics Review, European Association Comenius - EACO, issue 1, pages 1-23, March.
    16. Vanesa Jordá & José Sarabia, 2015. "International Convergence in Well-Being Indicators," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 120(1), pages 1-27, January.
    17. Suman Seth & Antonio Villar, 2014. "The Measurement of Human Development and Poverty," Working Papers 14.10, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics.
    18. 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.
    19. Maëlan Le Goff & Sara Salomone, 2015. "Changes in Migration Patterns and Remittances: Do Females and Skilled Migrants Remit More?," Working Papers 2015-15, CEPII research center.
    20. Nitika Mundetia & Devesh Sharma & Swatantra Kumar Dubey & Madhu Priya, 2018. "Development and Poverty Assessment Using an Alternate Non-compensatory Composite Index of Rajasthan State in India," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 140(1), pages 1-34, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gross National Income; Gross National Disposable Income; Living standard; Balance of Payments; Current Account; Remittances;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F60 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - General
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • 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:pav:demwpp:demwp0091. 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: Alice Albonico (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dppavit.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.