MEASURING HUMAN WELLBEING AND ADVANCING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: HOW CREDIBLE ARE THE UNDP'S HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORTS?

The broad objectives of the Human Development Report (HDR) and the estimates of human wellbeing are to identify policies that reduce poverty, economic and gender inequalities inequalities and increase human wellbeing. Since inception in 1990, the HDR and the methodological and measurement issues relating to the now well known Human Development Index (HDI) have undergone several transformations. This paper empirically looks at reliability of databases from HDRs with a special focus on the estimations methodology and data revisions of the HDI, recent growth trend in HDI and real income. It also looks selectively at major shift in policy directions for sustainable development in the HDRs. This paper notes that the databases in the HDRs exhibit significant measurement errors and inadequacies. The measurement errors are more conspicuous in case of data pertaining to low-income developing countries. This paper also notes that besides database problems, issues relating to policy revisions in the recent Reports raise serious questions of credibility with the Reports.Human Development Index, PPP GDP per capita, Low Income Countries, wellbeing.

World Income Distribution and Tax Reform: Do Low-Income Countries Need Direct Tax System?

Tax reform constitutes one of the core areas of recent economic reform programs in the developing countries. Utilizing new tax burden indexes, this paper argues that a flat or zero income tax creates pro-growth initiatives, reduces corruption and the size of informal sectors and generates over all institutional improvements in low income countries. Tax policy should also balance the growth effects from a flat or zero tax with broad-based consumption and innovative ecologically oriented taxes to ensure sustainability

The World Bank's 'genuine savings' measure and sustainability

In order to consider the depletion of natural capital in national income accounting, the World Bank has developed a composite indicator known as 'genuine savings' incorporating several environmental indicators. This paper examines the conceptual and empirical characteristics and policy implications of the measure. Analysis shows that the measure is conceptually and empirically imperfect. The policy implications based on this measure are erroneous. The paper suggests that a global approach is needed to appropriately address sustainability issues and to incorporate natural capital in national accounting

An empirical note on inequality in the world development indicators

A broad range of inequality measures is used to examine inter-country inequality in two highly correlated indicators of development, the per capita real income (Y) and the Human Development Index (HDI). The difference in the degree of inequality in Y and the HDI is found to be highly sensitive to the inequality index. Wolfson's index reflected high inter-country inequality in both Y and the HDI. Several other indexes also measured high inequality in Y and the HDI at varying levels. The entropy class of measures exhibited a high inequality in Y but negligible inequality in the HDI.

Environment, Trade and Sustainable Agriculture: Policy Issues

The growing environmental, health and ethical concerns associated with chemical-intensive and genetically modified food and agriculture have enhanced the importance of sustainable agriculture. This paper examines the growth in sustainable agriculture and changes in consumer attitudes and government policies towards sustainable production worldwide. Data on several indicators reflect that Australia is lagging behind many OECD countries in developing sustainable agriculture. This paper argues that Australia should aggressively promote itself as 'eco-nation' with strong emphasis on sustainable technologies. This paper also proposes several policies relevant for Australia in developing production and trade in this growth sector