National development delivers: And how! And how?

Abstract

National development is empirically necessary and sufficient for high levels of human wellbeing. Measures of three elements of national development: productive economy, capable administration, and responsive state, explain (essentially) all of the cross-national variation in the Social Progress Index (SPI), an omnibus indicator built from 58 non-economic indicators of human wellbeing. How national development delivers on human wellbeing varies, in three ways. One, economic growth is much more important for achieving wellbeing at low versus high levels of income. Two, economic growth matters more for “basic needs” than for other dimensions of wellbeing (like social inclusiveness or environmental quality). Three, state capability matters more for wellbeing outcomes dependent on public production. These findings highlight the key role of national development—and particularly economic growth—as instrumental to increased human wellbeing, which is increasingly challenged in favor of “small” programmatic and project design which is, at best, of third order of importance.