An index for sustainable development

Authors

  • Enrico Casadio Tarabusi
  • Paolo Palazzi

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13133/2037-3643/9827

Keywords:

Development, Sustainability

Abstract

As a possible improvement to the United Nations' Human Development Index (HDI), we propose including in the set of individual variables some of an environmental or social nature. Thus, by rescaling all the variables non-linearly it is possible to mitigate the effect of outliers and synthesize by principal components, or alternatively by a different averaging method that takes sustainability into account and penalizes unbalances among different aspects of development. Both methods are easy to implement and calibrate. The ensuing effect on the ranking of world countries is compared to the HDI ranking.   JEL Codes: C43, O11, O47, Q01

References

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GENTILI, B. (2001), "L'indice di sviluppo umano. Una nuova metodologia di calcolo", Tesi di laurea in Scienze Statistiche ed Economiche, Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", Roma.

LAWN, P.A. (2003), "A theoretical foundation to support the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW), Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), and other related indexes", Ecological Economics, vol. 44, no. 1, pp. 105-18.

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PALAZZI, P. (1997), Dinamica della struttura economica mondiale e suoi effetti sulle relazioni Nord-Sud, Giappichelli, Torino.

PALAZZI, P. and A. LAURI (1998), "The Human Development Index: suggested corrections", Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Quarterly Review, vol. 51, no. 205, pp.193-221.

WORLD COMMISSION ON ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT (1987). Our Common Future (Brundtland Report), Oxford University Press, Oxford.

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Published

2012-04-17

How to Cite

Casadio Tarabusi, E., & Palazzi, P. (2012). An index for sustainable development. PSL Quarterly Review, 57(229). https://doi.org/10.13133/2037-3643/9827

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Section

Articles