This paper addresses the conceptual and methodological issues related to women’s empowerment, the trends in women’s empowerment over the last 20 years in key areas such as education, health, economic and political participation, and finally the best practices of state and non-state actors in...

The impact of the US financial crisis that unfolded in 2008 has been global. It was felt in output, trade, and cross-border capital flows and transfers. Incomes have dropped and consumption patterns are changing, placing at risk the human development gains of the 1990s. At the heart of this...

This review highlights some achievements by regional, national and sub-national Human development Reports (HDRs) in influencing policy debate. Examining a sample of regional, national and sub-national HDRs released over the past 18 years, one concludes that several HDRs influenced the...

This paper reviews critiques of the Human Development Report over the last twenty years. The critiques are mostly related to the choice of indicators, to high correlation of HDI components, functional form of the HDI including normalization of component indicators, aggregation vs....

This report reviews patterns and trends in human development (HD) in East and Southeast Asia (ESA) since 1990, analyzes causes and consequences of this development, highlighting both structural and institutional factors, and identifies the basic principles for durable enhancements in HD. The...

This paper discusses the methodological judgments made during the development of the Human Development Index (HDI), and analyzes the quantitative and qualitative impact of different methodological choices on the HDI scores, as well as on the associated changes in ranking. This analysis is...

In this paper we introduce five graphical statistical methods to compare countries level of development relative to other countries and across time. For this, we use seven panels of data on the Human Development Index and its components, containing information on more than 100 countries for more...

One of the most serious weaknesses of the human development index (HDI) is that it considers only average achievements and does not take into account the distribution of human development within a country or by population subgroups. All previous attempts to capture inequality in the HDI have...

I conduct a cross-country analysis of the human development index (HDI) components, income, life expectancy, literacy and gross enrolment ratios, using Gray and PurserÕs 1970-2005 quinquennial database for 111 countries. 1) A descriptive analysis uncovers a complex pattern of divergence and...

This research provides a model of growth of the human development index (HDI) by examining past changes and levels of HDI and creates four ÒcohortsÓ of countries. Using a hypothetical cohort approach reveals a model of HDI growth. Generalized Estimating Equations are used to determine the...