IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ess/wpaper/id3161.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Living Standard and Economic Growth: A Fresh Look at the Relationship Through The Nonparametric Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Indrani Chakraborty

Abstract

The relative role of economic growth vis-a-vis public action in raising living standards in developing countries has been a point of contention for quite some time now. The arguments on both sides are usually based on some estimated relationship between indicators of living standard and other variables. A critical review of the existing studies throws up some methodological issues among which misspecification of the model is most crucial. An alternative approach, viz. the nonparametric regression method, has been shown to be superior in taking care of this problem. Analysing the data for 88 developing countries we note that per capita income has positive significant effect on the life-expectancy at birth. However, we have not observed any relationship between the improvement in life-expectancy and change in income as well as the level of income, unlike some earlier studies. This study has the implication that well-targeted public policies may be successful in improving the standard of living in poor economies in the short-term. But for sustainability in the long-term, growth-based strategies are necessary. [Working Paper No. 283]

Suggested Citation

  • Indrani Chakraborty, 2010. "Living Standard and Economic Growth: A Fresh Look at the Relationship Through The Nonparametric Approach," Working Papers id:3161, eSocialSciences.
    • Handle: RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:3161
    Note: Institutional Papers
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.esocialsciences.org/Download/repecDownload.aspx?fname=Document112112010360.8219568.pdf&fcategory=Articles&AId=3161&fref=repec
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sen, Amartya, 1981. "Public Action and the Quality of Life in Developing Countries," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 43(4), pages 287-319, November.
    2. Kakwani, N., 1993. "Performance in living standards : An international comparison," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 307-336, August.
    3. Streeten, Paul & Burki, Shahid Javed, 1978. "Basic needs: Some issues," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 411-421, March.
    4. Sen, Amartya, 1988. "The concept of development," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Hollis Chenery & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 1, pages 9-26, Elsevier.
    5. Hardle, Wolfgang & Linton, Oliver, 1986. "Applied nonparametric methods," Handbook of Econometrics, in: R. F. Engle & D. McFadden (ed.), Handbook of Econometrics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 38, pages 2295-2339, Elsevier.
    6. Bhalla, Surjit S & Glewwe, Paul, 1986. "Growth and Equity in Developing Countries: A Reinterpretation of the Sri Lankan Experience," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 1(1), pages 35-63, September.
    7. Eduardo Arriaga & Kingsley Davis, 1969. "The pattern of mortality change in Latin America," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 6(3), pages 223-242, August.
    8. Lant Pritchett & Lawrence H. Summers, 1996. "Wealthier is Healthier," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 31(4), pages 841-868.
    9. Isenman, Paul, 1980. "Basic needs: The case of Sri Lanka," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 237-258, March.
    10. Sudhir Anand & Martin Ravallion, 1993. "Human Development in Poor Countries: On the Role of Private Incomes and Public Services," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 133-150, Winter.
    11. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    12. Hardle, Wolfgang & Linton, Oliver, 1986. "Applied nonparametric methods," Handbook of Econometrics, in: R. F. Engle & D. McFadden (ed.), Handbook of Econometrics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 38, pages 2295-2339, Elsevier.
    13. Dasgupta, Partha, 1990. "Well-Being and the Extent of Its Realisation in Poor Countries," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 100(400), pages 1-32, Supplemen.
    14. Hollis Chenery† & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), 1988. "Handbook of Development Economics," Handbook of Development Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Gupta, Sanjeev & Verhoeven, Marijn, 2001. "The efficiency of government expenditure: experiences from Africa," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 433-467, May.
    2. Stephan Klasen, 2008. "Poverty, undernutrition, and child mortality: Some inter-regional puzzles and their implicationsfor research and policy," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 6(1), pages 89-115, March.
    3. N. Kakwani, 1995. "Structural Adjustment and Performance in Living Standards in Developing Countries," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 26(3), pages 469-502, July.
    4. Sylvie Lambert & Martin Ravallion & Dominique van de Walle, 2010. "A Micro‐Decomposition Analysis of Aggregate Human Development Outcomes," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 72(2), pages 119-145, April.
    5. Ravallion, Martin, 2005. "On Measuring Aggregate "Social Efficiency."," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(2), pages 273-292, January.
    6. Mendis, Patrick, 1995. "Capitalism In Human Scale: Are There "Virtuous Circles" In Economic Growth And Human Development In Achieving A Newly Industrialized Country Status?," Staff Papers 13901, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.
    7. Mendis, Patrick, 1992. "The Political Economy Of Poverty Alleviation In Developing Countries: Is Sri Lanka Really An Exception?," Staff Papers 14052, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.
    8. Gupta, Sanjeev & Verhoeven, Marijn & Tiongson, Erwin R., 2002. "The effectiveness of government spending on education and health care in developing and transition economies," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 717-737, November.
    9. Son, Hyun, 2009. "A Cross-Country Analysis of Achievements and Inequities in Economic Growth and Standards of Living," ADB Economics Working Paper Series 159, Asian Development Bank.
    10. Ravallion, Martin, 2000. "What can we learn about country performance from conditional comparisons across countries?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2342, The World Bank.
    11. Rahman, Tauhidur & Mittelhammer, Ron C. & Wandschneider, Philip R., 2011. "Measuring quality of life across countries: A multiple indicators and multiple causes approach," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 43-52, February.
    12. Leandro Prados de la Escosura, 2023. "Inequality Beyond GDP: A Long View," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 69(3), pages 533-554, September.
    13. Arne Bigsten & Jörgen Levin, 2001. "Growth, Income Distribution, and Poverty," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2001-129, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    14. Douglas J. Hodgson & Oliver Linton & Keith Vorkink, 2002. "Testing the capital asset pricing model efficiently under elliptical symmetry: a semiparametric approach," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(6), pages 617-639, December.
    15. William Joe & Udaya Shankar Mishra, 2015. "On Reckoning Level Differentials in the Measurement of Progress: An Illustration in the Context of Deliveries Assisted by Skilled Health Personnel," IEG Working Papers 352, Institute of Economic Growth.
    16. Rahman, Tauhidur & Mittelhammer, Ronald C., 2004. "Decomposing Well-Being Indicators Using Distributional Data," 2004 Annual meeting, August 1-4, Denver, CO 20232, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    17. Rahman, Tauhidur & Mittelhammer, Ronald C. & Wandschneider, Philip R., 2003. "A Sensitivity Analysis Of Quality Of Life Indices Across Countries," 2003 Annual meeting, July 27-30, Montreal, Canada 22045, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    18. Leandro Prados de la Escosura, 2015. "World Human Development: 1870–2007," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 61(2), pages 220-247, June.
    19. Gorton, Gary & Schmid, Frank A., 2000. "Universal banking and the performance of German firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1-2), pages 29-80.
    20. Tierney, Heather L.R., 2011. "Forecasting and tracking real-time data revisions in inflation persistence," MPRA Paper 34439, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    standard of living; model specification; nonparametric regression; public action vs. public expenditure;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ess:wpaper:id:3161. 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: Padma Prakash (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.esocialsciences.org .

    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.