Human Development in the US: An Analysis of the Rich and Poor in NY State

Abstract

Poverty has a devastating influence on human development, limiting educational access, high speed and efficient technological devices, and health necessities. Initially, economists focused on gains in income as a way to measure progress, such as GDP per capita, and investments in factors of production including land, labor, and capital that can spur such growth. Investments in labor include investments in education, training, and health as a means to promote productivity and therefore income gains. However, there has been a shift in focus to human development, whose objective extends beyond income to improved human capabilities as measured by quality of life, education, and health. Clear trends in the causes and effects of poverty and the impediments to human development have been evaluated globally, but what remains unclear is whether such trends hold at subnational levels. This study therefore seeks to assess one state in the U.S., the state of New York, to determine what factors are associated with disparities in human development by evaluating the differences between the fifty richest and fifty poorest towns. Through inferential hypothesis testing, this research evaluated which measures related to human development and poverty were statistically significantly different for the richest and poorest towns in New York. The two-tailed t-tests revealed significant differences in many factors tested, including health insurance, educational attainment, access to technology, and flood risk. The latter two findings have important policy implications for alleviating impacts of poverty, including closing the digital gap and implementing adaptations in high flood-risk, impoverished communities.