IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/fosoec/v45y2016i2-3p120-138.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measuring Human Development in a High-Income Country: A Conceptual Framework for Well-Being Indicators

Author

Listed:
  • Francesco Burchi
  • Pasquale De Muro

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the construction of an appropriate conceptual framework for measuring human development with a focus on high-income countries. Too often, the measurement exercise is based on a purely empirical basis where indicators simply reflect data availability and “conventional wisdom”. This is likely to misguide policy-makers. We deal with two core points for the construction of a conceptual framework: (a) specification of the theoretical approach and (b) identification of the relevant categories of indicators. The paper endorses the capability approach which is the theoretical underpinning of human development. In line with this perspective, it offers a view of the relationships between key concepts such as human development, well-being, capabilities, and functionings. Based on this framework, it then tries to identify which typology of indicators is more suitable for measuring people's functionings. Building on a multidisciplinary literature, we classify indicators as input, output, outcome, and impact indicators, and conclude that outcome indicators are the best solution for measuring functionings. Finally, the paper provides examples of theoretically robust indicators and argues for a focus on more advanced functionings in high-income countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Francesco Burchi & Pasquale De Muro, 2016. "Measuring Human Development in a High-Income Country: A Conceptual Framework for Well-Being Indicators," Forum for Social Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(2-3), pages 120-138, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:fosoec:v:45:y:2016:i:2-3:p:120-138
    DOI: 10.1080/07360932.2014.995196
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/07360932.2014.995196
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/07360932.2014.995196?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ulrike Mandl & Adriaan Dierx & Fabienne Ilzkovitz, 2008. "The effectiveness and efficiency of public spending," European Economy - Economic Papers 2008 - 2015 301, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
    2. Jeni Klugman & Francisco Rodríguez & Hyung-Jin Choi, 2011. "The HDI 2010: new controversies, old critiques," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 9(2), pages 249-288, June.
    3. Milorad Kovacevic, 2010. "Review of HDI Critiques and Potential Improvements," Human Development Research Papers (2009 to present) HDRP-2010-33, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
    4. Sabina Alkire, 2013. "Choosing Dimensions: The Capability Approach and Multidimensional Poverty," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Nanak Kakwani & Jacques Silber (ed.), The Many Dimensions of Poverty, chapter 6, pages 89-119, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Paul J. Gertler & Sebastian Martinez & Patrick Premand & Laura B. Rawlings & Christel M. J. Vermeersch, . "Impact Evaluation in Practice, First Edition [La evaluación de impacto en la práctica]," World Bank Publications, The World Bank, number 2550, September.
    6. Francesco Burchi & Pasquale De Muro, "undated". "A Human Development and Capability Approach to Food Security: Conceptual Framework and Informational Basis," UNDP Africa Policy Notes 2012-009, United Nations Development Programme, Regional Bureau for Africa.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nguyen, Phuc Van & Nguyen, Phong Thanh & Huynh, Vy Dang Bich & Nguyen, Quyen Le Hoang Thuy To, 2017. "Critical Factors Affecting The Happiness: A Vietnamese Perspective," MPRA Paper 96587, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Francesco Burchi & Pasquale Muro & Eszter Kollar, 2018. "Constructing Well-Being and Poverty Dimensions on Political Grounds," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 137(2), pages 441-462, June.
    3. Francesco Burchi & Margherita Scarlato & Giorgio d'Agostino, 2018. "Addressing Food Insecurity in Sub‐Saharan Africa: The Role of Cash Transfers," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 10(4), pages 564-589, December.
    4. Francesco Burchi & Nicole Rippin & Claudio E. Montenegro, 2018. "From income poverty to multidimensional poverty—an international comparison," One Pager Arabic 400, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
    5. Elisabetta Aurino & Francesco Burchi, 2017. "Children’s Multidimensional Health and Medium-Term Cognitive Skills in Low- and Middle-Income Countries," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 29(2), pages 289-311, April.
    6. Francesco Burchi & Karan Singh, 2020. "Women’s Political Representation and Educational Attainments: A District-level Analysis in India," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 15(1), pages 7-33, April.
    7. John Paolo Rosales Rivera, 2022. "A nonparametric approach to understanding poverty in the Philippines: Evidence from the Family Income and Expenditure Survey," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(3), pages 242-267, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Juan Pablo Celemín & Guillermo Ángel Velázquez, 2018. "Spatial Analysis of the Relationship Between a Life Quality Index, HDI and Poverty in the Province of Buenos Aires and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, Argentina," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 140(1), pages 57-77, November.
    2. Vincenzo Mauro & Mario Biggeri & Filomena Maggino, 2018. "Measuring and Monitoring Poverty and Well-Being: A New Approach for the Synthesis of Multidimensionality," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 135(1), pages 75-89, January.
    3. Vincenzo Marinello & Chiara Di Puma, 2020. "The Human Development Index: a critical evaluation and a new proposal," RIEDS - Rivista Italiana di Economia, Demografia e Statistica - The Italian Journal of Economic, Demographic and Statistical Studies, SIEDS Societa' Italiana di Economia Demografia e Statistica, vol. 74(2), pages 29-38, April-Jun.
    4. Meysonnat, Aline & Muysken, Joan & Zon, Adriaan van, 2015. "Poverty traps: the neglected role of vitality," MERIT Working Papers 2015-052, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    5. Albino Prada & Patricio Sánchez-Fernández, 2019. "Transforming Economic Growth into Inclusive Development: An International Analysis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 145(1), pages 437-457, August.
    6. Nicola Amendola & Giacomo Gabbuti & Giovanni Vecchi, 2018. "On the use of composite indices in economic history. Lessons from Italy, 1861-2017," HHB Working Papers Series 11, The Historical Household Budgets Project.
    7. Clara Capelli & Gianni Vaggi, 2014. "Why Gross National Disposable Income should substitute Gross National Income," DEM Working Papers Series 091, University of Pavia, Department of Economics and Management.
    8. Lukas Schrott & Martin Gaechter & Engelbert Theurl, 2015. "Regional Development in Advanced Countries: A Within-country Application of the Human Development Index for Austria," DANUBE: Law and Economics Review, European Association Comenius - EACO, issue 1, pages 1-23, March.
    9. Vanesa Jordá & José Sarabia, 2015. "International Convergence in Well-Being Indicators," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 120(1), pages 1-27, January.
    10. Suman Seth & Antonio Villar, 2014. "The Measurement of Human Development and Poverty," Working Papers 14.10, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics.
    11. Mariano Luque & Salvador Pérez-Moreno & Beatriz Rodríguez, 2016. "Measuring Human Development: A Multi-criteria Approach," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 125(3), pages 713-733, February.
    12. Clara Capelli & Gianni Vaggi, 2013. "A better indicator of standards of living: The Gross National Disposable Income," DEM Working Papers Series 062, University of Pavia, Department of Economics and Management.
    13. Nitika Mundetia & Devesh Sharma & Swatantra Kumar Dubey & Madhu Priya, 2018. "Development and Poverty Assessment Using an Alternate Non-compensatory Composite Index of Rajasthan State in India," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 140(1), pages 1-34, November.
    14. Daniel T. L. Shek & Florence K. Y. Wu, 2018. "The Social Indicators Movement: Progress, Paradigms, Puzzles, Promise and Potential Research Directions," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 135(3), pages 975-990, February.
    15. Jeni Klugman & Francisco Rodríguez & Hyung-Jin Choi, 2011. "The HDI 2010: new controversies, old critiques," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 9(2), pages 249-288, June.
    16. Rui Fragoso & Vladimir Bushenkov & Carlos Marques, 2012. "Integrated Water Management Using Feasible Goals Method and Interactive Decision Maps: The Case of Odivelas Irrigation," CEFAGE-UE Working Papers 2012_07, University of Evora, CEFAGE-UE (Portugal).
    17. Cei, Leonardo & Stefani, Gianluca & Defrancesco, Edi & Lombardi, Ginevra Virginia, 2018. "Geographical indications: A first assessment of the impact on rural development in Italian NUTS3 regions," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 620-630.
    18. Sakaue, Katsuki, 2018. "Informal fee charge and school choice under a free primary education policy: Panel data evidence from rural Uganda," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 112-127.
    19. Albino Prada-Blanco & Patricio Sanchez-Fernandez, 2017. "Empirical Analysis of the Transformation of Economic Growth into Social Development at an International Level," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 130(3), pages 983-1003, February.
    20. Michalewska-Pawlak, Małgorzata & Klimowicz, Monika, 2021. "The impact of the Government Program for Social Participation of Senior Citizens (ASOS) on social activation of the elderly in Poland: Findings from a qualitative study," Studia z Polityki Publicznej / Public Policy Studies, Warsaw School of Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-17, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:fosoec:v:45:y:2016:i:2-3:p:120-138. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RFSE20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.