What Does the Human Development Index Really Measure?
BRDH/PNUD convertDate(‘1 06 2009′,’fr’); 1 junio 2009 Last week, Justin Wolfers presented a simple yet apparently powerful critique of the Human Development Index (H.D.I.) — a summary index of per-capita income, health, and education indicators published by the United Nations Development Programme. The correlation between the rank of H.D.I. and that given by G.D.P. is 0.95, and a scatterplot of one against the other looks like a 45 degree line plus measurement error. Justin’s critique is not new, and neither is my response. Indeed, the literature on the links between human development and per-capita income is quite vast, including the entire 1996 Human Development Report. The criticism that Justin levies at the H.D.I. is based on the high correlation between the rank of the H.D.I. and the rank of G.D.P. If you think that development economics is purely about ranking countries, then Justin is right; both indicators do give similar comparisons. But we care about human development not jus
