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Standards of living, human development indices and structural adjustments in developing countries: an empirical investigation
Author(s) -
Noorbakhsh Farhad
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of international development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.533
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1099-1328
pISSN - 0954-1748
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-1328(199901/02)11:1<151::aid-jid516>3.0.co;2-l
Subject(s) - standard of living , per capita income , economics , income elasticity of demand , embarrassment , per capita , human development index , developing country , human development (humanity) , high income countries , demographic economics , development economics , economic growth , labour economics , population , sociology , psychology , demography , social psychology , market economy
A faulty version of this article was originally published in Journal of International Development Volume 10, Issue 6, 1998, pages 751–775. The publisher apologises to the author for any embarrassment or inconvenience caused. This paper attempts to examine whether the structural adjustment programmes of the World Bank have improved the standards of living and human development indices in the treated countries. It appears that while during the adjustment period the average real per capita income has grown faster in these countries this has not been the pattern for the indicators of standards of living. Although there exists a relationship between the human development indices and income for countries considered, the income elasticity of the non‐income components of the human development indices examined here are very low for the countries which have benefited for a longer period from the structural adjustment loans and similarly for the non‐treated countries. It seems that the physical standards of living examined here, though depending on per capita income, were relatively more influenced by other factors. In conclusion the validity of a high concentration of adjustment programmes on income growth as the main target is questioned. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.