Edexcel A Level Economics A:复习笔记4.3.1 Measures of Development

• Economic development is the sustainable increase in living standards for a country, typically characterised by increases in life span, education levels, & income
• There are many measures of economic development
  • Single indicators e.g. number of doctors/1000 people; infant mortality rate; % of the population with access to clean drinking water
  • Composite indicators such as the Human Development Index (HDI)

The Human Development Index (HDI)

• Developed by the United Nations, it is a combination of 3 indicators

1. Health, as measured by the life expectancy at birth e.g.in 2019 it was 81.2 years in the UK
2. Education, as measured by a combination of the mean years of schooling that 25 year old's have received, together with the expected years of schooling for a pre-school child
3. Income, as measured by the real gross national income per capita at purchasing power parity (ppp)

• Each indicator is given equal weighting in the index
• The index ranks countries on a score between 0 & 1
  • The closer to 1, the higher the level of economic development & the better the standard of living
  • A value of < 0.550 is considered low development e.g. Chad 0.394
  • A value of 0.550-0.699 is considered medium development e.g. El Salvador 0.673
  • A value of 0.700-0.799 is considered high development e.g Thailand 0.777
  • A value ≥ 0.800 is considered very high development e.g. Norway 0.957

The Advantages & Disadvantages Of Using the HDI For Comparison

• There are many more single indicators of economic development. These can be used to compare the relative standing of countries at any point in time. They also serve to provide targets for improving the lives of citizens. Examples include
  • The proportion of the male population engaged in agriculture
  • Energy consumption per person
  • The proportion of the population with access to clean water
  • The proportion of the population with internet access
  • Mobile phones per thousand people
  • Number of girls completing primary education
• Two other useful composite indicators include
  • The inequality adjusted HDI (IHDI)
  • The Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MPI)

Characteristics Of the IHDI & MPI