Economic and Social Determinants of Human Development: A New Perspective

The aim of this work is to determine the factors affecting development, not only the economic ones, which play a central role in economic literature, but also social. To do so we have used a wide sample of countries and have estimated a panel data for 171 of those that have been members of the United Nations for a period of 16 years (from 1995 to 2010 inclusive). The results obtained allow us to conclude that fight against poverty, provision of basic infrastructure, and investment in greater democracy, greater stability and less corruption, have, in all cases, a positive effect on human development in these countries.