Chpt 1Long Q On Human Development Index Flashcards
What is HDI
Is a scoring system used by the UN since 1990 to rank countries based on their social and economic well-being.
Expressed on scale 0 to 1.
3 areas ranked = wealth (GNI per person), health (life expectancy), education (literacy rates)
What other indicators do HDI now include
Gender equality and human rights
What category do countries fall into
Very high, high, medium and low human development
Where does Norway rank with HDI
1st in 2017 with 0.949
Where does Central African Republic rank
188 out of 193 with 0.352
Are all countries included in HDI scale
Some are not due to lack of info
What are some advantages to using HDI
More complete view of country’s development compared to GNP
Doesn’t just focus on economic side
Include social factors - education, equality
What are some advantages to HDI
Can evolve over time
Reflects change in development
New indicators can be added
More complete picture of human social and economic development
What is a problem with HDI
Do not show inequality in a country - e.g China and Kenya have widely different HDI scores depending on region
North China poorer than south east china
May not respond to short term changes
What is a problem with HDI
Higher national wealth does not indicate welfare as depends on how money is spent
Country spends lots on military = high GNI but welfare could be low
Some countries = high wealth scores per capita but high levels inequality e.g Saudi Arabia
Define GNP
Is the value of goods and serviced produced in a country and the value of goods and serviced produced by native companied located abroad
Before HDI what was the common measure of economic development
GNP was and gave a simple ranking based on economic output of a country
What is used for international ranking
Lately GNI is used
What is GNI
It is GNP but takes into account taxes and remittances sent to a country
What is GNI per captia
It is the gross national income converted to us dollars divided by population
What is GNI used for
Clear way of showing wealth differences between countries - Ireland = 51,000 and Central African Republic = $330 per year
Countries with high GNP vs lower GNP
Higher standard of living and more developed than lower GNP countries
Advantage of GNP
Easy and quick to calculate based on gov stats of output
Disadvantages of GNP
- Average figure so hides inequalities of peoples incomes in country
- Num of MNCs in country affects GNP of a country - large MNCs send wealth back home and do not contribute to country they are in where branch plants are - Ireland at risk of this
- GNP appears higher with high inflation event though people are less well off
- Countries with increasing economic growth are associated with higher levels of pollution which decrease welfare of population so high GNP not equal high standard living
