4.5.2 Measures of development

Question 1

What are Todaro’s development objectives?

Answer 1

• Life sustaining goods and services
• Higher incomes
• Freedom to make economic and social choices

Question 2

What is the HDI

Answer 2

Focuses on longevity, basic education and minimal income with a value between 0 and 1 - 1 being most developed and then using an average of the 3 composite indexes to give an overall measure of development

Education - mean years of schooling and expected years

Life expectancy

GNI/Capita at PPP

Question 3

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the HDI?

Answer 3

Pros:

• Easy to collect and compare
• Objective
• Measures longevity and education more indicative of development than just GDP

Cons:

• Does not account qualitative factors such as cultural equality and freedoms
• Does not account for inequalities of incomes so innacurate measure of well being
• PPP values may be inaccurate

Question 4

What are other indicators of development?

Answer 4

• Structure of output, trade and employment
• % of adult male and female labour in agriculture
• Access to clean water and sanitation
• Energy consumption/capita
• Fertility rates and population rates (DTM)
• HIV and healthcare
• Dependency on aid
• Primary product dependency