Social and Economic Wellbeing in Europe and the Mediterranean Basin: Building an Enlarged Human Development Indicator

This paper calculates a human Wellbeing Composite Index (WCI) for 42 countries, belonging to the European Economic Space, North Africa and the Middle East, as an alternative to the shortcomings of other well-known measures of socio-economic development (i.e. Gross Domestic Product per head and Human Development Index). To attain this goal, different data envelopment analysis (DEA) models are used as an aggregation tool for seven selected socio-economic variables which correspond to the following wellbeing dimensions: income per capita, environmental burden of disease, income inequality, gender gap, education, life expectancy at birth and government effectiveness. The use of DEA allows avoiding the subjectivity that would be involved in the exogenous determination of weights for the variables included in WCI. The aim is to establish a complete ranking of all countries in the sample, using a three-step process, with the last step consisting in the use of a model that combines DEA and compromise programming, and permits to obtain a set of common weights for all countries in the analysis. The results highlight the distance that still separates Southern Mediterranean countries from the benchmark levels established by some European countries, and also point to the main weaknesses in individual countries’ performance. Nordic countries, plus Switzerland, top the list of best performers, while Mauritania, Libya and Syria appear at the bottom.     

The Evolution of Well-Being in Spain (1980–2001): A Regional Analysis

Evaluations of regional welfare conventionally rely on Gross Value Added (GVA) per capita as an indicator of well-being. This paper attempts to re-address the regional welfare issue using alternative indicators to per capita income. With this aim, a database for the Spanish regions (NUTS II) has been constructed for the period 1980–2001 and an augmented version of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Index (HDI) has been estimated incorporating indicators of health, education and per capita income. The results show that, whereas regional income per capita disparities have remained constant, regional convergence in the Augmented Human Development Index (AHDI) was achieved between 1980 and 2001. None the less, there is no evidence of intra-distributional mobility (leap-frogging) across regions in the AHDI     

An Econometric Analysis of the Relationship Between Millennium Development Goals,Economic Growth and Financial Development in South Africa

The relationship between financial development, economic growth and millennium development goals are unsettled in the literature. Using four indicators of financial development, this paper studies the link between the three variables in South Africa. In general, per capita income improves per capita spending on education in the short run. However, total domestic credit to GDP ratio decreases spending on education. There are highly significant long run relationships among the variables. Improving access to private sector credit and increasing per capita incomes are associated with improvement in health outcomes in South Africa. There are no short run nor long run relationships between household spending on clothes, economic growth and financial sector development. Improved private sector credit also improves household spending on food. In general, there are long run relationships between per capita spending on food, per capita income and financial sector development.

     

The effects of income level,income distribution,education and urbanization on fertility rates among 28 administrative regions of China

Conflicting empirical evidence on the role of income distribution on fertility rates is the impetus for this 1982 study of providence-specific Chinese Census data, excluding Tibet. The findings support the prior thesis of Repetto but utilize the micromethods and per household income measures of the competing findings of Boulier. It is cautioned that in the Chinese analysis equal income distribution depresses fertility, but China may not reflect world wide patterns. China did not have until recently a market incentive system, and there are income measurement problems. The data are per capita economic output not per capita income, and those high output areas which did not produce low fertility may actually have had households with low incomes. The importance of this research is in establishing that cross-province data are a useful tool in understanding the influence of income distribution on fertility. As with most developing countries, women's education, for instance, at least junior high education explained the largest variation of fertility differences among the 28 provinces. The urbanization variable when controlling for income was positive, unlike the other developing countries. The 1949 Chinese government's spatial industrial policy encouraged urbanization and industrialization in rural areas and family planning programs such that highly urbanized provinces have low population density. A variety of variables on income level, income distribution, education, and urbanization are discussed. OLSQ regressions were generated utilizing such independent variables as output per capita in yuan (YOUTHPC80), the square of YOUTHPC80 (YOUTHPC802), YOUTHPC80 multiplied by the average family size in each province (YOUTHPH80), and the squared value of YOUTHPH80.     

An objective criterion of coordination of population growth with economic development]

Coordination of population growth with economic development is the fundamental element for the development of society. Based on China's present condition and our future goal--to be a communistic society--per capita income was suggested to be the most important criterion. Because the primary requirements of a communistic society and the goal of our socialistic production are material abundance and a highly developed civilization, per capita income is also the best criterion to measure the level of our "Four Modernizations" program and the coordination of population with the economy. The economic development based on per capita income also has international significance, for it will indicate the excellence of our system and contribute our strength to world peace in the future. In order to continue increasing per capita income the primary goal is increased production. On the other hand, a rapid population growth delays economic development. A comparatively small difference in population growth rate (a decrease from 1.5% to .5%) leads to a large difference in total population and the investment in the population after many years (e.g. 20 to 40 years). For China's present condition the slower the population growth rate the better for our economic development and the faster the per capita income will increase.     

Total fertility rate,women's education,and women's work: What are the relationships?

This paper presents the results of a statistical study, using cross-national data, on the relationships between total fertility rate and women's level of education and women's labor participation. Aggregate data on seventy-one countries were collected from numerous sources. Eight variables related to women's fertility, mortality, economic status, labor participation, and education are analyzed using multivariate linear regression analyses. Two models are considered. The first model regresses five variables on total fertility rate: per capita Cross National Product (GNP), percentage of women ages 15 to 19 who are married, female life expectancy at birth, calories available as a percentage of need, and percentage of married couples using contraception. The second model includes two additional regressors: the average number of years of schooling for women, and the percentage of women in the labor force. These seven variables are regressed on total fertility rate. Although the data are crude, the results of the analyses suggest that the model which incorporates women's level of education and women's labor participation captures the data better than the smaller model. The full model suggests that the percentage of women in the labor force is directly related to total fertility rate, whereas the average number of years of education for women is indirectly related to total fertility rate.     

International Comparisons of Trends in Economic Well-being

This paper develops a new measure of economic well-being for selectedOECD countries for the period 1980 to 1996 and compares trends in thisnew Index to GDP per capita. We argue that the economic well-being ofa society depends on the level of average consumption flows, aggregateaccumulation of productive stocks, inequality in the distribution ofindividual incomes and insecurity in the anticipation of future income.However, the weights attached to each component will vary, dependingon the values of different observers. We argue that public debatewould be improved if there is explicit consideration of theaspects of economic well-being obscured by average income trends andif the weights attached to these aspects were made visible and wereopen for discussion.     

A New Multidimensional Measure of Development: The Role of Technology and Institutions

This paper constructs four structural indices by using 42 socioeconomic variables for 129 countries and the 10 years period from 2003 to 2012. Each structural index can be considered as a measure of a certain dimension of development. The first two indices are the most useful in explaining gaps in development across countries. The first captures the role of technology and institutional quality while the second provides a measure of the basic level of development. The contrast between them signifies that the notion of development is not only multidimensional, but also changing with the stage of development. These two indices are combined to form a development index (DI). A comparison of DI to income per capita and the Human Development Index highlights the importance of institutions in the transition of countries from merely having high income to full development. A methodological contribution of the paper is to use a Jackknife approach within the factor analysis routine to test for the significance of the extracted factors/indices.     

Are Mathematics and Science Test Scores Good Indicators of Labor-Force Quality?

Using data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), we investigate the link between test scores (mathematics and science) and cross-country income differences. We would like to know whether test scores are good indicators of labor-force quality. The analysis suggests that after properly controlling other variables that are typical in cross-country economic growth study, the strong link between test scores and cross-country income differences disappears. Moreover, we show that variables such as Research and Development researchers (per capita) or Scientific and Technical journal articles (per capita) can better account for the cross-country income differences.     

Happy life-expectancy

One of the aims of social indicator research is to develop a comprehensive measure of quality-of-life in nations that is analogous to GNP in economic indicator research. For that purpose, several multi dimensional indexes have been proposed. In addition to economic performance, these also acknowledge the nation's success in matters like schooling and social equality. The most current indicator of this type is the ‘Human Development Index’. In this approach QOL is measured by input; the degree to which society provides conditions deemed beneficial (‘presumed’ QOL). The basic problem is that one never knows to what extent the cherished provisions are really good for people. An alternative is measuring QOL in nations by output, and consider how well people actually flourish in the country. This ‘apparent’ QOL can be measured by the degree to which citizens live long and happily. This conception is operationalized by combining registration based estimates of length-of-life, with survey data on subjective appreciation-of-life. Life-expectancy in years is multiplied by average happiness on a 0–1 scale. The product is named ‘Happy Life-Expectancy’ (HLE), and can be interpreted as the number of years the average citizen in a country lives happily at a certain time. HLE was assessed in 48 nations in the early 1990's. It appears to be highest in North-West European nations (about 60) and lowest in Africa (below 35). HLE scores are systematically higher in nations that are most affluent, free, educated, and tolerant. Together, these country-characteristics explain 70% of the statistical variance in HLE. Yet HLE is not significantly related to unemployment, state welfare and income equality, nor to religiousness and trust in institutions. HLE does not differ either with military dominance and population pressure. The conclusion is that HLE qualifies as the envisioned comprehensive social indicator. It has both clear substantive meaning (happy life-years) and theoretical significance (ultimate output measure). HLE differentiates well. Its correlations fit most assumptions about required input, but also challenge some. The indicator is likely to have political appeal.     

The gap of economic development expanding between eastern China and middle,western China

Jiang Zemin announced at China's 5th Plenary Session of the 14th Central Committee that there was a serious problem of differences in economic development between Eastern China and Middle and Western China. There are many economic development differences between provinces. The coastal eastern zone is comprised of 12 provinces and municipalities: Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Liaoning, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Shandong, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hainan. The middle zone is comprised of 9 provinces and regions including Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Henan, Hubei, and Hunan. The third development zone in Western China includes the 9 provinces of Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Tibet, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, and Xinjiang. The most developed region is the eastern coastal zone. About 41% of the total population live in the eastern coastal zone, about 36% live in the middle zone, and about 23% live in the western zone. The proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) in the eastern, middle, and western zones shifted from 52.5%, 31.0%, and 16.5%, respectively, in 1973 to 58.5%, 27.4%, and 14.1%, respectively. in 1994. GDP per capita increased by 10.5 times in the eastern zone, by 8.2 times in the middle zone, and by 8.0 times in the western zone to 5352 yuan, 2878 yuan, and 2320 yuan, respectively, in 1994. Nationally, per capita income among urban households was 3179 yuan in 1994. In the eastern coastal zone only two provinces were below the national average: Liaoning with 2750.73 yuan/capita and Hebei with 2906.42 yuan/capita. Only 2 of 18 provinces in the middle and western zones had per capita urban income above the national average: Hunan with 3365.47 yuan/capita and Tibet with 3595.42/capita. Nationally, the annual net rural income was 1220.98/capita. Rural income below the national average occurred in Hebei and Guangsi in the eastern coastal zone and all provinces in the middle and western zones. The highest rural income in the middle and western zones was in Tibet with 975.95 yuan/capita.     

教育投入与社会保障对城乡收入差距的联合影响

当前城乡收入差距扩大化趋势引起广泛关注。文章使用世代交叠模型研究公共教育和社会保障对收入分配的作用机制,在此基础上分析公共教育和社会保障对城乡收入差距的影响。研究发现,公共教育通过作用于教育投资、社会保障通过作用于有效家庭时间共同影响人力资本积累从而影响收入。一方面,数值模拟结果显示公共教育和社会保障的增加能够显著地增加收入;另一方面,结合中国城乡实际的实证研究结果显示,本应该起到调节和缩小城乡收入差距的公共教育和社会保障制度,并没有发挥其收入再分配的功能,反而形成了"逆向调节"的负效应,扩大了城乡收入差距,对此,文章通过理论与实证得出,缩小我国城乡人均教育投资和社会保障税率差距对缩小城乡收入差距具有重要的现实意义。     

An automatic-democratic approach to weight setting for the new human development index

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of constructing a multi-dimensional index is that of choosing weights for the components. This problem is often bypassed by adopting the ‘agnostic’ option of equal weights, as in the human development index. This is an annual ranking of countries produced by the United Nations Development Programme based on life expectancy, education, and per capita gross national income. These three dimensions are now aggregated multiplicatively. Whatever weights (exponents) are chosen for these dimensions, some nations will feel disadvantaged. To avoid the use of arbitrary weights, we propose for consideration a two-step approach: (1) find the most advantageous set of weights for each nation in turn, and (2) regress the associated optimal scores on the underlying indicators to find a single weight set. This approach has the properties of non-subjectivity, fairness, and convenience. The result is that the highest weight is placed on the life expectancy dimension.     

Family and economic growth: A review

The interplay between fertility decisions and per capita growth of income by investment decisions in human capital constitutes the key element of growth models based on the microeconomic theory of family behavior. A strategy that raises the fixed cost per child, reduces the cost of education, stimulates the accumulation of human capital, diminishes the opportunity cost of parents to send their children to school, encourages female activity, accelerates economic development and contributes to a reduction of inequality.     

The wealth of nations revisited: Income and quality of life

Does economic prosperity enhance the quality of human life? Across 101 nations, 32 indices were analyzed that reflect a representative sample of universal human values (e.g., happiness, social order, and social justice). Wealth correlated significantly with 26 of the 32 indices, indicating a higher QOL in wealthier nations. Only suicide and CO₂ emissions were worse in wealthier societies. Basic physical needs were met early in economic development, whereas advanced scientific work occurred only when basic physical needs were fulfilled for almost all people in the society. Limitations of the conclusions are discussed.     

Causal Flow between Human Well-being and per Capita Real Gross Domestic Product

Whether a country should try to improve human well-being of the masses or should concentrate solely on economic upliftment of the country is an alarming question in development economics. Survey of literature evidences a number of views in this respect. Present study uses the lagged dependent variable model to address the question. It attempts to find causal priority between human well-being and per capita gross real product (an indicator of economic achievement of a country). In this context it uses three core indicators of human well-being life expectancy at birth, infant survival rate and adult as well as three broad income groups: high, middle and low.     

劳务经济与资源经济结合的农民增收模式——以重庆市为例

本文通过对重庆农村居民收入构成状况的分析发现：劳务收入与家庭经营收入是重庆农村居民人均纯收入的主要来源,但家庭经营收入在农民人均纯收入中所占比重不断下降;究其原因在于劳务经济与资源经济发展严重脱节,重庆市在劳务经济迅速发展的同时,资源经济发展相对滞后,从而影响农民人均纯收入持久稳定增长。为此,本文提出建立劳务经济与资源经济结合的农村居民持续增收模式。     

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.     

南京市人口发展对耕地保护的压力分析

逐步回归分析指出,在总人口、城市化水平、人均可支配收入、居住消费比重、交通消费比重、非农产业产值和非农产业的万元产值占地系数等变量中,总人口是南京市耕地总量变化的根本因素。总人口通过居住和就业影响耕地变化。未来一段时间,南京市总人口还将持续增加,人均可支配收入也有提高的基础,居民消费结构还要升级,这些都对耕地保护构成了压力。调节南京市人地矛盾可以考虑推行适度城市化政策,提高非农产业的万元产值占地系数,还可在耕地保护的制度上寻求创新。