Comparing Human Development Patterns Across Countries: Is it Possible to Reconcile Multidimensional Measures and Intuitive Appeal?

Working paper, n° 15/2010, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche, Università di Firenze ABSTRACT The aims of this paper are two. The first is to to present a frame- work that facilitates the identication and analysis of human devel- opment patterns in terms of outcomes performance from a cross and time perspective. The second is to nd a method that is effective in summarizing different dimensions that concerns human development progress. We consider human development progress as enhanced throughout virtuous synergies among positive human development outcomes and between these and `positive' economic outcomes. The methodology aims to take into consideration these synergies, while the theoretical framework captures dierent patterns of human development progress through the distinction between the social di- mensions (SD) and the economic dimensions (ED) as `command over resources' . Although this framework is not a sucient guide for pol- icy, the research ndings are an explicit recognition of the need to analyse and to integrate economic and social policies. Furthermore, the explorative empirical results highlight different human develop- ment patterns between countries and their connection to the dierent policies adopted by each country (e.g. by transition economies) and by the impact of different type of crises.