Measuring inequalities of development at the sub-national level: From the human development index to the human life indicator

Abstract

Despite being one of the most common measures of development, the Human Development Index [HDI] has been much criticized for its consistency, data requirements, difficulty of interpretation and trade-offs between indicators. The 'Human Life Indicator' [HLI] has been proposed as a 'simple effective means' of measuring development and, more specifically, as a viable alternative to the HDI. Reducing inequalities within countries is a core component of the Sustainable Development Goals; yet sub-national HDIs are subject to the same criticisms as national level indices (potentially more so). Our goal in this paper is to demonstrate 'proof of concept' in terms of the systematic application of the HLI to measure development at the subnational level. Using life tables for the United States of America, we calculate, for the first time, HLIs for each state for the period 1959-2016. This country was chosen for the comparatively long run of available sub-national life tables. We also calculate the extent to which mortality is distributed across the life course-a further measure of inequality and the role of the social determinants of health. The HLI clearly shows how striking regional inequalities exist across the United States. We find that HLI and HDI for the most recent time period are strongly correlated. The analysis demonstrates that HLI represents an effective means of measuring development at the sub-national level. Compared to HDI, HLIs are characterized by simpler calculation and interpretation; fewer data requirements; less measurement error; more consistency over time; and no trade-offs between components. A current challenge of producing sub-national HLIs is the lack of comprehensive civil registration and vital statistics systems in many parts of the Global South from which sub-national life tables can be generated. However, as more and more countries develop these systems the potential to produce HLIs will inevitably increase.

Key Success in Fostering Human Development Index at the Local Level

“…Furthermore, the finding is an alternative to the means in increasing HDI based on fiscal capacity (Khusaini, 2020;Rizki & Saputra, 2018), political will (Amaluddin et al, 2018), and public services in the health sector (Candradewini & Nirmalasari, 2018). This study emphasizes the importance of the perspective on the methods of achieving development goals rather than the content of development such as human development (Lind, 2019;Scherbov & Gietel-Basten, 2020), infrastructure development (Castro, Taleires, & Silveira, 2021), sustainable environment (Jin et al, 2020;Lai & Chen, 2020;Lima et al, 2022;Tjolli et al, 2021), information and communication technology (N. H. Khan et al, 2019;Zhang & Danish, 2019), globalization (Asadi & Marin, 2019), economic development (Bhowmik, 2018;Kinnunen et al, 2019), and democracy (Gruczyn ska, 2018; Kinnunen et al, 2019).…”

“…It focuses on economic growth and social justice, which enlarges people's choices (A. Khan et al, 2015;Kinnunen, Androniceanu, & Georgescu, 2019;Lind, 2019;Scherbov & Gietel-Basten, 2020). In general, HDI determines the level of welfare (Jin, Qian, Chin, & Zhang, 2020;Yoantika & Susiswo, 2021).…”

Association between COVID-19 incidence and outcome and national development levels: An ecologic analysis

“…(2) it is applicable to various groups and can reflect discrepancies in income distribution, gender, regional distribution and ethnic groups [15]. Although HDI is a vital and comprehensive indicator for measuring the socio-economic development level of countries or regions, its kernel still emphasizes that "people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country, not economic growth alone", and that the average achievement in key aspects of human development includes a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable, and a decent standard of living [16]. In brief, HDI measures the level of human development and reflects the social progress that provides a new perspective for people to evaluate social development.…”

Global burden and trends of pelvic organ prolapse associated with aging women: An observational trend study from 1990 to 2019

“…In this study, we obtained the data from GBD 2019 using the online Global Health Data Exchange (GHDx) query tool ( http://ghdx.healthdata.org/gbd-results-tool ), including incidence cases, DALY across 195 countries (e.g., taking 1990 and 2019 as time nodes, the 2 years were analyzed separately), as shown in Figure 1 . To further investigate the global burden of POP, the social-demographic index (SDI) was used to classify these countries and regions into five categories, namely high SDI, high-middle SDI, middle SDI, and low-middle SDI, and low SDI ( 25 , 26 ). Additionally, we also drew the world map to observe the incidence rate and DALY of POP in 195 countries, and the corresponding trend in different countries and regions over the three decades.…”