Measuring Development: An Inequality Dominance Approach

ISBN-13: 9789811561634 / Angielski / Miękka / 2021 / 230 str.

Asis Kumar Banerjee

Recenzje

"Asis Banerjee's book is one that anyone working in the area should, in the least, have an opinion of. The importance of taking inequality seriously in development measures is rightfully championed by the author, and the difficultly of achieving robust rankings highlights the potential for much future work." (Aaron Nicholas, Economic Record, Vol. 97 (317), June, 2021)

"The book is a notable addition to an area of normative economics that has assumed renewed prominence in the context of rising dissatisfaction with the vaunted gains of globalization." (Soumyen Sikdar, Journal of Quantitative Economics, Vol. 18, 2020)

Spis treści

Chapter 1: Introduction   

                      

                     1.1: Plan of the chapter

                     1.2: Types of measures

                     1.3: Alternative notions of development

                     1.4: Choice of functionings, their observable indicators and relative weights

                     1.5: A dominance approach

                     1.6: Conclusion: Chapter summary and a preview of the rest of the book 

 

Chapter 2: Towards an Inequality-Sensitive Measure of Development:

                   The Unidimensional Case   

                       

                     2.1: Introduction to the chapter

                     2.2: Measuring inequality

                     2.3: Back to the measurement of development

                     2.4: Concluding remarks     

                      

Chapter 3:  Unidimensional Development Ranking and Fuzzy Lorenz

                    Dominance

                     

                     3.1: Introduction to the chapter

                     3.2: Fixed mean comparisons

                     3.3: The general case: Variable mean income

                     3.4: Conclusion

 

Chapter 4: Illustrative Applications of Unidimensional Development Indices

                   

                     4.1: Introduction to the chapter

                     4.2: Household consumption expenditure in India

                     4.3: Household wealth in India

                     4.4: An international cross-section perspective: Household wealth in BRICS

                            countries

                     4.5: Conclusion

 

Chapter 5: Multidimensional Lorenz dominance

  

                     5.1: Introduction to the chapter

                     5.2: Notations, definitions etc.

                     5.3: “Candidate” Lorenz dominance elations

                     5.4: A class of multidimensional Lorenz dominance relations

                     5.5: Conclusion   

 

Chapter 6: Multidimensional Inequality-Sensitive Development Ranking

 

                 6.1: Introduction to the chapter

                     6.2: Notations

                     6.3: Conditions on a multidimensional inequality-sensitive development index

                            6.3.1: Non-equity conditions

                            6.3.2: Equity conditions

                     6.4: Development ranking

                     6.5: Incompleteness revisited: A partial solution

                     6.6: Conclusion

 

Appendix to Chapter 6: Multidimensional Inequality Indices:

                                         A Unifying Approach

 

                     6.A.1: Normatively significant multidimensional inequality indices     

                     6.A.2: Multidimensional versions of specific unidimensional inequality indices

                                6.A.2(a): Multidimensional Gini index

                                6.A.2(b): Multidimensional coefficient of variation and multidimensional

                                                generalised entropy indices 

                                6.A.2(c): Other multidimensional inequality indices

                     6.A.3: Conclusion

 

Chapter 7:  An Illustration: Multidimensional Development and Inter-State

                     Inequality in India in the 2000s

                    

                 7.1: Introduction to the chapter

                     7.2: Units of observation: The states of India

                     7.3: The dimensions

                     7.4: What do we expect a priori?

                     7.5: The data

                     7.6: Development ranking

                     7.7:  Conclusion

 

 

 

Chapter 8: Overview and Concluding Remarks

                                      

                 8.1: Overview 

                     8.2: Other ranking rules

                            8.2.1: Human Development Index

                            8.2.2: Better Life Index

                            8.2.3: Some other indices in the academic literature

                     8.3: Conclusion        

O autorze

Asis Kumar Banerjee is a former Vice-Chancellor and a former Professor of Economics at the University of Calcutta. He holds an M.A. in Economics from the same university, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Johns Hopkins University. He has been associated with Presidency College, Calcutta; the Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi; and the University of California, Riverside, California. His research interests include welfare economics, game theory and economic development. 

Blurb

This book discusses how to measure the level of development of an economy, particularly, the task of ranking economies in terms of their development. In this context, development is defined as an increase in people’s level of wellbeing. The book emphasises that wellbeing is a multidimensional concept, and that it is important to ask how equitably the fruits of development are distributed, and as such it focuses on multidimensional, inequality-sensitive development ranking. Rather than using various specific development indices, which would lead to different development rankings for a country, the book proposes a dominance approach, which formulates conditions under which two economies can be ranked unambiguously, making it valid for all reasonable development indices. With the help of illustrative examples using real-world data, it demonstrates that such unambiguous rankings are possible, and that the proposed approach can be used to complement traditional approaches. An invaluable resource for researchers working in the field of development, the book will also appeal to practitioners engaged in measuring development.