Income elasticity of human development in ASEAN countries

Following the extensive literature on income (growth) elasticities of poverty in developing countries, this paper explores the magnitude of improvement in a country's human development as its per capita income increases. The response is measured in terms of the income elasticity of Human Development Index (HDI) published by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The group of ASEAN countries is studied, and the 20-year period 1990-2010 is covered. The main outcome of the exercise is that income elasticities of human development vary from a low of 0.20 to 0.25 for Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and Vietnam to a high of over 0.50 for Indonesia, indicating that there is a relatively huge variation in the rate at which income growth translates into human development even in this well-integrated group.