Measuring Welfare and Measuring Welfare and HappinessHappiness

The Human Development IndexThe Human Development Index

Evelyn FuchsEvelyn FuchsJessica GattererJessica Gatterer

Nathalie HarlanderNathalie Harlander

IntroductionIntroduction

- United Nations Development Programme

(UNDP) in 1990

- Economists Mahbub ul Haq & Amartya Sen

developed a simple measurement method to

evaluate development not only by economic

advances but also improvements in human well-

being.

UmweltsystemwissenschaftenKarl-Franzens-Universität

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Human Development Report (HDR)Human Development Report (HDR)

- Indicator for countries all over the world

- Human Development Report is published by the

UNDP every year- “Human development is concerned with what I take to be the basic

development idea: advancing the richness of human life, rather than

the richness of the economy in which human beings live, which is

only part of it.” (Amartya Sen, Human Development Measurement:

A broader approach in India, 2010:9).

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Topics discussed in the HDRTopics discussed in the HDR

- Social progress

- Economics

- Efficiency

- Participation and Freedom

- Sustainability

- Human Security

UmweltsystemwissenschaftenKarl-Franzens-Universität

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Human Development Index (HDI)Human Development Index (HDI)

- Summary measure of Human Development

- Three dimensions of Human Development:

- Life expectancy at birth (population & longevity)

- Knowledge and education

- Standard of living (Gross domestic product per capita

at purchasing power parity)

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Critical View – HDICritical View – HDI

+ good package of indices at a very aggregate level and

especially in relation to the multidimensional aspects

of human development.

- Distorted picture of the world: it ignores the

environmental dimensions of development, especially

the relationships between the performance of

countries on the environmental and human

development dimensions

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Video for Human DevelopmentVideo for Human Development

YouTube - Human Development Report 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIbkPPkuKno

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Thank you for your attention!!! Thank you for your attention!!!

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