This paper will begin with an explication of the central tenets of Nussbaum's capabilities theory. The next section examines Nussabum's two-fold justification of capabilities; namely, the substantive good approach (or intuitionism), which serves as the primary justification, and a version of...

This paper introduces Kohonen self-organizing maps to the scholarly discussion of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). We use data through the MDGs' approximate mid-point (2000--2008) to analyze three world regions: Africa, Asia and Latin America. We observe a handful of...

In this paper I review the state of human development in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and its evolution in the past four decades. I highlight the following salient characteristics of MENA economies that shape human development in the region: high income from hydrocarbon exports, which...

The article reviews the role of capability innovations, defined as the carrying out of new combinations of capabilities, in human development. Drawing on a recognized social innovation in sanitation--the ikotoilets of Kenya's Ecotact--the article makes a threefold argument. Firstly, indirect...

Inspired by Narayana's article published in this journal, this comment revisits the conclusion of a policy-driven decline in daughter elimination in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu using recently released data from Census 2011. Consistent with Narayana's work we find evidence to support the...