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Human Development Status and Regional Disparity in China

Author

Listed:
  • Ying ZHANG

    (Institute for Urban and Environmental Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, MCC Tower, 28 Shuguangxili, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100028, China)

  • Bin ZHANG

    (Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Liangxiang College Park, Fangshan District, Beijing 102488, China)

Abstract

The 2010 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Global Human Development Report introduced a new methodology to calculate Human Development Index (HDI). Three dimensions of HDI i.e. income, education, and health are adjusted for inequalities in attainments across people. The paper uses the new methodology to estimate 2010 China's national and provincial HDI. Compared with UNDP global report, all the data used here are from China's domestic sources. The education indicator estimated here by referring to detailed local statistics and documents are higher than that in UNDP's global report, thus contributing a slight higher overall HDI estimate. Based on the estimation results here and UNDP's report, China is located in between high human development and low human development, in other words, placed around the half position among all 169 countries. To facilitate a cross-country comparison, the indices are normalized with reference to the goalposts outlined in the HDR 2010. When ranked according to global goalposts, Beijing's rank is 31 whereas the least developed Tibet only ranks 114. Most of the regional disparity is driven by their income differences. The findings of this paper try to shed light on the status of China's human development and also gain insights on China's regional disparity. Further research is required to explore the inter-linkages between inequalities across various dimensions and to examine the factors behind these inequalities.

Suggested Citation

  • Ying ZHANG & Bin ZHANG, 2014. "Human Development Status and Regional Disparity in China," Chinese Journal of Urban and Environmental Studies (CJUES), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 2(02), pages 1-9.
    • Handle: RePEc:wsi:cjuesx:v:02:y:2014:i:02:n:s2345748114500195
    DOI: 10.1142/S2345748114500195
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Sabina Alkire, James Foster, 2010. "Designing the Inequality-Adjusted Human Development Index (HDI)," OPHI Working Papers 37, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    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.
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