Values Reflected in the Human Development Index

The Human Development Index (HDI) implicitly defines ``human development' and ranks countries accordingly. To elucidate the HDI's meaning of ``human development,' the paper examines the sensitivity of the HDI to changes in its components, namely social indicators of education, longevity and standard of living. The HDI is next compared with two alternatives, the Life Quality Index (LQI) and a Time Allocation Index (TAI) developed in this paper from the HDI's components. Also considered is the likely uncertainly in the HDI and what it means for HDI rankings.It is concluded that the HDI's weighting of the gross domestic product is in good agreement with peoples' preferences as revealed in the LQI and the TAI; further, that the HDI places many times greater weight on education than is indicated by peoples' allocation of time in developed countries. Literacy is accorded very high weight in the HDI, but its measure is unreliable. The HDI ranking of highly developed nations is so close and so uncertain that it is meaningless.     

Does Human Development Index Provide Rational Development Rankings? Evidence from Efficiency Rankings in Super Efficiency Model

The human development index (HDI) rankings have provided a referenced measure for people to choose a country in which to travel or live. This paper employs a superefficiency model to evaluate the rationality of the HDI rankings of 19 evaluated OECD countries in 2009. Compared to the HDI rankings, the efficiency rankings measured by the super-efficiency model have the following two advantages: (1) they consider the inputs that are used to generate the indicators for constructing the HDI, and decide the weights of inputs and outputs endogenously; (2) the input slacks measured by the super-efficiency model can evaluate whether the inputs are over-used and provide the improvement path of each country’s input variables. Empirical result shows that approximately 75 % of the evaluated countries had rather different results in the efficiency rankings and the HDI rankings. Additionally, the input slack shows that roughly 70 % of sample countries over-used their capital per labor relative to their existing outputs (or the HDI).     

A Human Development Index for the Dalit Child in India

There have been many attempts to measure the quality of life of society in general (such as the Human Development Index of UNDP), or of children in particular (Jordan 1993; Corrie 1994). This article constructs a Human Development Index (HDI) for the Dalit Child in India following the methodology used by UNDP (1990) to construct a human development index for the countries of the world. Dalits (also known as Untouchables, Harijans, Scheduled Castes) have and continue to be a marginalised group in India. Section 1 presents the indicators used to construct the HDI for the Dalit child in India. Section 2 presents the rationale for the choice of the indicators chosen. Section 3 presents the methodology used to construct the HDI for the Dalit child in India. Finally, Section 4 presents the relative ranking of 15 states in India based on the level of human development as reflected in the HDI constructed for the Dalit child. It also compares the HDI rankings from perspective of the Dalit Child in India with a recent HDI constructed for 17 states in India using similar indicators as UNDP (1990). The policy usefulness of this human development index for the Dalit child in India is that it could serve as an indicator of the social progress achieved in India as the country attempts to fulfill its constitutional vision of equality for all citizens.     

Measurement of social development: an international comparison

PQLI and HDI are the two most popular measures of development, besides per capita income. Over the years, PQLI appears to be not much in use for regional comparisons, especially after the introduction of HDI. While PQLI considers only the physical variables—adult literacy, life expectancy at birth and infant survival rate, HDI has life expectancy at birth, educational attainment and real GDP per capita (PPP$). PQLI and HDI are similar, the main difference between the two being the inclusion of income in HDI and exclusion of the same from PQLI. In a sense, HDI represents both physical and financial attributes of development and PQLI has only the physical aspects of life. The present author took the lines of PQLI to express development in terms of physical variables and considering development as a multidimensional phenomenon, Ray (1989) [Ray, A. K. (1989). On the measurement of certain aspects of social development, Social Indicators Research (Vol. 21, pp. 35–92). The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.] included as many as 13 physical variables to represent social development across 40 countries; no financial variable was included in the construction of composite index, termed as the Social Development Index, SDI. Incidentally, like PQLI, SDI was introduced before HDI. Unlike PQLI and HDI, SDI considers (i) a large number of indicators representing various concern areas and (ii) a set of objective methods for combining the development indicators as a composite index. Ray (1989) has been restated and updated in this article with newer cross-country information. In the present study, SDI has been constructed for over 102 countries, including 21 OECD countries, using 10 development indicators, instead of 13 indicators in the past. Apart from presenting objective methods for combining indicators into SDI, the present study asserts that SDI works better than HDI as a measure of development for an international comparison. The views expressed in the article are those of the author and not of the institution he serves.     

Education,Human Development and Quality of Life: Measurement Issues and Implications for India

This paper analyses and compares the measurement of indicators and variables in the construction of education index in Human Development Index (HDI) at the global, national and 18 sub-national human development reports in India since 1990. The results show non-comparability of measurement of the education indicators and variables. This implies that vertical and horizontal comparability of HDI may not be plausible for India. Implications of these analyses are highlighted for measurement of quality of life indices with special reference to physical quality of life index. Policy lessons are derived for future measurement of education index for India in particular, and other developing countries in general.

Measuring the Well-Beings of the Developing Countries: Achievement and Improvement Indices

The paradigm of development in the recent days has been shifted from Per Capita Gross National Product (PCGNP) to Human Well-being. It has also been admitted broadly that PCGNP does not automatically transformed into human well-being. It has thus become common practice to use a range of socio-economic variables for measuring the human Well-being (quality of life) in a country. In order to measure the well-being of about 70 developing countries, this study widens the scope of the Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI) introduced by Morris, by incorporating a number of social aspects of life. On the basis of these indicators, the achievements in the quality of life of these countries are analyzed in this study. An attempt is also made to compare the decadal improvements in their performances in respect of the quality of life over a period of 1960 to 1990. The study also attempts to analyze the relations between achievements and improvements of quality of life and achievements and improvements in terms of PCRGDP of the countries.     

The Resource-Infrastructure-Environment Index for Measuring Progress: An Application to Australia, Mexico and the US

The resource-infrastructure-environment (RIE) index was proposed as an alternative measure of progress which was then employed to: (1) compare the aggregate (single summary) index findings between Australia (mid-industrialised nation), Mexico (emerging economy), and the US (highly industrialised nation); and (2) compare the RIE index against the gross domestic product (GDP), human development index (HDI) and genuine savings (GS) measure. This paper builds on the previous work by assessing the seven themes and 21 dimensions which comprise the RIE index for the three aforementioned nations, as well as the associated policy implications. The results identified Australia’s strength in the human resource and infrastructure themes. For Mexico, strong contributions came from the natural and generated resource themes as well as the physical environment theme, while the US performed strongly in the infrastructure themes. The comparative results of the US and Mexico illustrated that it is possible to achieve high levels of progress without an excessive reliance on high levels of production and income.     

Attracting Attention for the Cause. The Reporting of Three Indices in the UK National Press

Indicators and indices (a collection of indicators into a single value) have been promoted for some time as convenient devices for the presentation of complex datasets to a more general audience. Examples of indices are the corruption perception index (CPI), human development index (HDI) and ecological footprint (EF). The research reported in this paper was designed to explore the extent to which the CPI, HDI and EF have been reported in UK national newspapers between January 1990 and December 2009, and whether there are differences between the indices in the pattern of reporting. Results suggest that reporting of the CPI was linked to the timing of reports issued by Transparency International. The same was partly true of reporting of the HDI and timing of release of Human Development Reports s by the UNDP. The EF has more reports than the CPI and HDI, and this is related in part to its greater flexibility and adaptability at more local (intra-UK) scales. The paper recommends that those creating such indices look beyond the methodological dimension and consider how best to make the index resonate with the media.     

Life Quality measures of smoking

The cost of smoking has three principal dimensions: money, reduced life expectancy, and diminished health. Each component can be quantified; all have an influence on the quality and duration of life. The combined influence can be evaluated using an aggregated social indicator, such as the Life Quality Index. It can be expressed in various ways, e.g. as an equivalent move to a nation or to a time with a lower level of the LQI, as an equivalent economic loss, or as an equivalent loss of life expectancy. To illustrate, the analysis is applied to Danish data on smoking; the cost for a typical pack-a-day habit is equivalent to a 57% reduction in personal income, 8.6 years loss of life expectancy, or a 4% drop in the Life Quality Index. These measures underscore the seriousness of smoking as a health hazard.     

Evidence-Based Well-Being/Positive Psychology Assessment and Intervention with Quality of Life Therapy and Coaching and the Quality of Life Inventory (QOLI)

Quality of Life Therapy and Coaching (also known as Quality of Life Therapy) is a comprehensive, manualized, theory-based, and, according to Diener (2013) and Seligman (Flourish, Free Press, NY, 2011, p. 292), evidence-based approach to well being, happiness, and positive psychology intervention suitable for both coaching and clinical applications. Clients are taught strategies and skills aimed at helping them to identify, pursue, and fulfill their most cherished needs, goals, and wishes in sixteen valued areas of life said to comprise human well-being and happiness. Quality of Life Therapy and Coaching is “manualized” in the form of the book entitled Quality of Life Therapy (Frisch 2006), providing step-by-step instruction in assessing well-being, tailoring interventions, and monitoring progress, outcome, and follow-up with the evidence-based well-being assessment, the Quality of Life Inventory or QOLI^®. This article describes Quality of Life Therapy and Coaching and reviews developments and research since the publication of the manual in 2006. Randomized controlled trials bearing on the empirical support of Quality of Life Therapy and Coaching and the related assessment, the Quality of Life Inventory, are reviewed. The steps in Quality of Life Therapy and Coaching are delineated in the context of an illustrative case and an underlying theory which attempts to integrate findings from the fields of well-being, positive psychology, happiness, quality of life, social indicators research, psychotherapy, and coaching. Future applications and research are suggested which may identify the effective components of Quality of Life Therapy and Coaching and assess their direct impact on health and illness, encourage the use of evidence-based assessments and interventions on the part of well being coaches and therapists, and create health care delivery systems in which well being assessments and interventions are conducted concurrently with symptom-oriented tests and treatments.     

The Development of an Instrument to Measure Quality of Life in Mexico City

This study seeks to develop a valid and reliableinstrument to measure Quality of Life among theinhabitants of Mexico City. Quality of Life isconsidered to be a subjective, multi-dimensionalconstruct.In this study, information was gathered regarding howinhabitants of Mexico City defined Quality of Life. Based on an analysis of the content of theirresponses, Quality of Life items were selected for thesample. Then a Likert instrument was applied,containing the items obtained from the openinterview.Factorial analyses and tests for internal consistencywere applied in order to ascertain the factorialcomponents of Quality of Life. This allowedstatistically significant differences to be observedbetween Quality of Life factors and certainsocio-economic variables.     

An Assessment of the Measurement Properties of the Human Development Index

One of the more important determinants of the competitiveness of a nation is the quality of its human capital. The Human Development Index (HDI) is the most widely used yardstick of human development. It measures human development for all the countries of the world, through the use of three factors – longevity, knowledge and GDP measured in purchasing power. This paper evaluates HDI's contribution towards measuring the quality of the human capital component of a nation's competitiveness. Two primary issues under study are the HDI's information properties vis-a-vis its components and its measurement properties as an index. The primary conclusion of the study is that the HDI carries useful information about a country's current development, but not about the future level of development. Hence, further refinements in its construction as well as additional theoretical support as a quantitative measure are needed.     

Gender or Occupational Status: What Counts More for Well-Being at Work?

The aim of this study is to provide cross-cultural empirical support that endorses the scientific nature of Quality of Life (QoL), which a review of definitions reveals as a nomothetic and multidimensional concept (personal and environmental circumstances), made up of a set of subjective and objective indicators. Although this is commonly accepted, many instruments and authors reduce it to subjective and personal conditions. Bearing in mind the aim described, multi-group Structural Equation Modelling analysis was applied to two representative samples made up of 1217 participants aged over 60 from Mexico and Spain, recruited both at random (through the random route procedure), who completed the CUBRECAVI (Brief Questionnaire of Quality of Life). In this model two third-order latent variables are considered for QoL: personal and external factors, both made up of objective and subjective indicators. As predicted, the results permit us to state that the structural model is invariant across the two countries—that is, although the QoL construct has the same structure in the two countries, the importance of the indicators (factor loadings) and the relationships between them are not equivalent.     

Composite Indices of Development and Poverty: An Application to MDGs

The measurement of development or poverty as multidimensional phenomena is very difficult because there are several theoretical, methodological and empirical problems involved. The literature of composite indicators offers a wide variety of aggregation methods, all with their pros and cons. In this paper, we propose a new, alternative composite index denoted as MPI (Mazziotta-Pareto Index) which, starting from a linear aggregation, introduces penalties for the countries or geographical areas with ‘unbalanced’ values of the indicators. As an example of application of the MPI, we consider a set of indicators in order to measure the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and we present a comparison between HDI (Human Development Index) methodology, HPI (Human Poverty Index) methodology and MPI.     

A New Malaysian Quality of Life Index Based on Fuzzy Sets and Hierarchical Needs

The Malaysian Quality of Life Index (MQLI) released by the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), has led authors to search for alternative method of expressing this index. One of the limitations in MQLI computations is the failure to recognise unequal weights for each accounted component. This paper offers a new way of expressing the quality of life index using a mathematical modelling based on fuzzy sets theory and the proposed weights based on Maslow’s theory of hierarchical human needs. The indices of 11 components that were used to compute MQLI, again be gathered as a basis in expressing a new Malaysian Fuzzy Quality of Life Index (MFQLI). The new indices for each component yielded through a normalisation process prior weighting and aggregation to compose a new MFQLI. It was found that a fuzzy sets approach with the inclusion of weights based on human needs yielded a better index of quality of life than the MQLI.     

Measuring Human Development: A Multi-criteria Approach

In 2010 the Human Development Index (HDI) was revised with several major changes. Many of its problems were tackled, although some drawbacks still persist. This paper proposes a multi-criteria approach to measure human development, propounding two innovations for the computation of the HDI: (1) the introduction of a double reference point scheme in the normalization; (2) an aggregation function which deals with the problem of substitutability between components. In particular, for each component of the HDI the value of each country is normalized by means of two reference values (aspiration and reservation values) by using an achievement scalarizing function that is piecewise linear. Aggregating the new normalized values, we calculate a range of indices with different degrees of substitutability: (1) a weak index that allows total substitutability; (2) a strong index that measures the state of the worst component and allows no substitutability; and (3) a mixed index that is a combination of the first two.     

Social Quality: A Way to Measure the Quality of Society

In this paper we suggest a way to measure the well-being of society based upon our own development of the Social Quality model. The Social Quality model has the advantage of being sociologically grounded as a measure of the well-being of society and the individuals within it. We test our model of Social Quality against life satisfaction as an indicator of how successful it is in delivering these aspirations. The model was tested on all European countries using the European Quality of Life Surveys in 2003 and 2007 and was found to explain a large amount of variance, which was consistent across time and space. We suggest that it is possible to operationalise this model using small number of variables, ones that are frequently used in comparative surveys and this should enable the quality of society to be measured in a parsimonious and effective way.     

Community Subjective Well-being,Personality Traits and Quality of Life Therapy

In this study, factors that are instrumental in improving individuals' aswell as communities' subjective well-being (SWB) and Quality of Life (QOL)such as positive and negative relationships, personality characteristics ortraits as defined by family members or spouse, perceptions of the future aslooking good, and psychological factors (such as congruency,thriving/resilience personality, belongingness, external and internal powerand psychoallostasis), demographic variables, and religion were examined.The findings indicate that congruency with one's community values andexpectations, belongingness, thriving personality, psychoallostasis andpositive relationships or closeness to people in one's community, and theperception of the future both for the individual and for the community asbright, are important indicators of Quality of life and increased Subjectivewell-being. Additionally, family or spousal ratings of personalitycharacteristics as desirable affected SWB only if the ratings correspondedto the individuals' rating. Path analysis indicate that the high levels ofhappiness experienced by people living in Individualistic-sub-collectivisticcultures such as Appalachia is strongly linked to communal homeostasis andpsychoallostasis lifestyles prevalent in these communities. Implications ofthese findings to Quality of life therapy (QOLT) and healthy psychology atboth the individual level and community level are discussed.     

What Defines Quality of Life? The Gap Between Public Policies and Locally Defined Indicators Among Residents of Kodagu, Karnataka (India)

Improving quality of life (QoL) is one of the main goals of many public policies. A useful tool to measure QoL needs to get a good balance between indicators guided by theories (top-down approach) and indicators defined by local people (bottom-up approach). However, QoL measurement tools often neglect to include elements that define the standard of living at local level. In this paper, we analyse the correspondence between human development index, as an indicator adopted by governments to assess QoL, and the elements defined by local people as important in their QoL, called here local means. Using a free-listing technique, we collected information from 114 individuals from Kodagu, Kartanataka (India), to capture local means defining QoL. We then compared local means with the indicators used by Human development report (HDR) of Karnataka, the main measurement tool of QoL in Kodagu. The list of local means included access to basic facilities and many issues related to agriculture and natural resources management as elements locally defining QoL. We also found that HDR does not capture the means defined by people as indicators of QoL. Our findings suggest an important gap between current QoL’s indicators considered by public policies and the means of QoL defined by people. Our study provides insights for a set of plausible local indicators useful to achieve a balance between top-down and bottom-up approaches for the local public policies.     

基于科学发展观的人类发展指标体系研究——以苏州市为例

科学发展观是统领我国社会经济发展的重要指导思想。而要将此重要理念付诸实施,贯彻落实到政府部门具体的行政工作中,建立科学的人类发展评价体系和正确的政府工作引导机制至关重要。本课题试图以苏州为例,以科学发展观为指导,通过对现有的人类发展指数及其相关指标的应用评估,提出新的基于科学发展的人类发展指标体系,并运用实际资料通过横向和纵向比较来评估新世纪以来苏州在人类发展中所取得的进展以及新的人类发展指标体系的应用状况。