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A Generalized Human Development Index
Author(s) -
Chakravarty Satya R.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
review of development economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.531
H-Index - 50
eISSN - 1467-9361
pISSN - 1363-6669
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9361.00178
Subject(s) - life expectancy , index (typography) , human development (humanity) , human development index , econometrics , population , economics , point (geometry) , educational attainment , human life , measure (data warehouse) , mathematics , economic growth , sociology , demography , computer science , political science , world wide web , geometry , humanity , database , law
The human development index indicates achievement in the living standard of a population in terms of attainment levels of different quality–of–life attributes, such as educational attainment and life expectancy at birth. This paper axiomatically characterizes a general measure of achievement. This achievement index, which contains the UNDP human development index as a special case, can be regarded as a generalized human development index. The general index allows calculation of the percentage contributions of individual attributes to overall achievement and hence to identify the attributes that are more/less susceptible to achievement. This kind of breakdown becomes important from a policy point of view. The paper provides an empirical illustration of the axiomatically characterized indices.