The Limits of Human Development Index: The Complementary Role of Economic and Social Cohesion, Development Strategies and Sustainability

This paper assesses the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Index (HDI) positively as a starting point for determining the relative degree of development of a country in the framework of the most stringent modern concept of human development. However, it is a synthetic indicator and as such suffers from limitations in terms of reflecting how the people of a country effectively participate in the average progress achieved and in terms of the prospects for future development. Empirical evidence confirms that the HDI needs to be supplemented by other indicators associated with economic and social cohesion, sound development strategies, and sustainability in growth models. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.