Skip to content
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
social sciences
On weighting the components of the human development index: A statistical justification
Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Volume 12, No. 2, Year 2011
Notification
URL copied to clipboard!
Description
The Human Development Index (HDI) published in the Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Program has been calculated as a simple average of the Life Expectancy Index, the Education Index and the Gross Domestic Product Index. This paper provides statistical support for the use of this seemingly arbitrary equal weighting of the three components by treating human development as a latent concept imperfectly captured by its three component indices. We show that a principal component analysis (PCA) based on the correlation matrix of the components leads to practically the same weights. Specifically we show that, for the period 1975-2005, the first principal component accounts for between 78% and 90% of the total variability in the data, and that its coefficients are positive and nearly equal. By normalizing the coefficients, the simple average weighting (1/3, 1/3, 1/3) scheme is obtained. The ranks of countries obtained using the PCA weightings are very similar to those based on the HDI. An advantage of the simple equal weighting is that one can define a simple index to measure the balance of a country's development, given its HDI. © 2011 United Nations Development Programme.
Authors & Co-Authors
Nguefack-Tsague, Georges
Cameroon, Yaounde
Université de Yaoundé I
Klasen, Stephan
Germany, Gottingen
Georg-august-universität Göttingen
Zucchini, Walter S.A.
Germany, Gottingen
Georg-august-universität Göttingen
Statistics
Citations: 96
Authors: 3
Affiliations: 2
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1080/19452829.2011.571077
ISSN:
19452829
e-ISSN:
19452837