Abstract
In this paper, we study global inequality in well–being taking as a theoretical benchmark the Human Development Index (HDI), which comprises variables of income, health and education. We use a two–step methodology that involves the construction of a composite index in the first step on which inequality measures are computed. The use of these measures requires making choices on the standardisation of the variables and their weights, the rate of substitution between dimensions and the degree of inequality aversion in the society. We investigate the impact of these choices on the evolution of unweighted inequality over the period 1980–2011. We find the robust result that global inequality in human well–being decreased over the last 30 years.
Highlights
The interest of academics in assessing country levels of well-being has shifted from an income perspective to a multidimensional conception of this process
While the main conclusion is that levels of quality of life converged over the last decades, the results seem to be sensitive to different indicators of well-being and the inequality measures considered (McGillivray and Pillarisetti, 2004)
5 Conclusions The consideration of income as a poor indicator to assess well-being has led several attempts to develop a more comprehensive indicator, which takes into account the multidimensional nature of quality of life
Summary
The interest of academics in assessing country levels of well-being has shifted from an income perspective to a multidimensional conception of this process. The different trends exhibited by the individual dimensions of quality of life make it difficult to draw integral conclusions about the evolution of well-being inequality In this context, multidimensional inequality measures are useful tools to study the evolution of disparities in well-being. While the main conclusion is that levels of quality of life converged over the last decades, the results seem to be sensitive to different indicators of well-being and the inequality measures considered (McGillivray and Pillarisetti, 2004). This paper investigates the role of these choices in the evolution of disparities in quality of life using two-step measures This question was partially addressed by Martínez (2012), who computed several inequality measures for the old and the new versions of the HDI, which mainly differ in the assumed degree of substitution.
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