Measuring Development Flashcards
List the four main areas of measurement
- Economic Measures
- Social Measures
- Humanist Measures
- Poverty Measures
Define economic growth
GROWTH = the monetary value of the country’s produce increases over time, relative to other countries
What is the common pattern of economic growth?
Subsistence –> Mass Production/consumption –> Service Industries
How is economic growth usually measured?
GNI - gross national income, per capita
the total amount of goods & services produced by a country in a financial year
What are the benefits of measuring development via GNI?
- ‘per capita’ means the statistics allow for differences in size of populations between countries
- GNI figures reveal the dramatic scale of inequality between the developed and developing worlds
- change year to year in GNI gives a measurement of economic growth
What are the negatives of measuring development via GNI?
- economic growth doesn’t cover all aspects of social development (a rise in GNI doesn’t necessarily mean education/health are improving)
- GNI per capita is still an average for the whole population, so hides inequalities like how big the rich/poor gap is
- continuous economic growth is very unlikely to be sustainable development – boom & bust is severely damaging for developing countries
Why is rapid economic growth an issue?
Although economic development is a good thing, failing to invest in sustainability leads to ‘boom and bust’ where those unable to save/buy assets will suffer
(Wealthy countries can deal with this because of state welfare and extent to wealth - e.g the furlough scheme )
What are the measures for social development?
Education: % of children eligible & attending school
Health: IMR, MMR
Democracy: participation in electorate (ROPA)
Gender Equality: M/F average years in education
How are social measures used to measure development?
Several measures of development combine different indicators of development to create a score for each country - then they can be put in rank order & development can be tracked
What is a humanist measure?
The Human Development Index (HDI)
- a UN measure for measuring development
What is the HDI?
- a composite measure that combines three figures to produce a score
- GNI per capita
- Education (yrs in education by 25, expected yrs in
state education) - Health (life expectancy in years & months)
What is the Human Development Report?
A sociological report that looks at more humanist measures that could be used to measure development
An alternative to the UN’s HDI
Focused on equality & reducing poverty - rather than a country’s economic/statistical success
What is are some positives of the HDI?
- takes into account more than economic health but social health too (broadens scope) - a country could be rich but have unhappy people so shouldn’t be deemed as ‘developed’
- generates a score allowing countries to be ranked against each other
- useful for giving a broad impression of the development
What is are some negatives of the HDI?
- doubts about the accuracy of statistics used because of difficulties collecting data in developing countries - figures not always available
- not all important aspects of development can be measured quantitatively
- the three measures of development used seem rather arbitrary
What other indices of development are used by the Human Development Report?
- The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)
- The Gender Inequality Index (GII)
- The Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI)
