Elsevier

Ecological Economics

Volume 25, Issue 3, June 1998, Pages 249-264
Ecological Economics

SURVEY
The human development index: a critical review1

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Abstract

Since 1990, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has published a series of annual Human Development Reports (HDRs) in which the human development index (HDI) is computed for each country. This index has become an important alternative to the traditional unidimensional measure of development (i.e. the gross domestic product). Although the index still fails to include any ecological considerations, it has broadened the discussion surrounding the evaluation of development. Unfortunately, over the years, the HDRs seem to have become stagnant, repeating the same rhetoric without necessarily increasing the HDI's utility. This paper evaluates how well these reports have lived up to their own conceptual mandate and assesses the ability of the HDI to further the development debate. We find that the reports have lost touch with their original vision and the index fails to capture the essence of the world it seeks to portray. In addition, the index focuses almost exclusively on national performance and ranking, but does not pay much attention to development from a global perspective. We propose the incorporation of three simple modifications for the index as a first step to overcome these shortcomings.

Keywords

Human development
HDI
Equity
Sustainability
UNDP

Cited by (0)

1

This paper is based, in part, on an earlier version presented at the 9th Annual Conference of the Academic Council of the United Nations System (ACUNS) held in Turin, Italy in June 1996.

2

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