CODREANU Carmen Mariana
Associate professor Ph.D., Faculty of Economics, "Petre Andrei" University from Iasi, Iasi, Romania, [email protected]
Abstract: The concept of QoL can both relate to the overall assessment of life and evaluate the spheres of life: quality of work, quality of the environment, quality of interpersonal relationships and quality of family life. The human development index is aimed at showing the evolution of the living standards and includes a three-dimensional approach that covers items such as life expectancy, literacy and real per capita GDP. The proposed indicator is an attempt to develop a tool for tracking the evolution of human development, more deeply than other aggregate indicators and even more deeply than a series of statistical indicators.
Key words: quality of life (QoL), human development, GDP
JEL classification: O15
1. Introduction
One can say that a system of indicators is performing if it allows correlating the social results with the causes on the one hand and the various related aspects of the social life on the other hand.
The systems of indicators used for analyzing the quality of life are formed differently, depending on the development of the respective country. Developed countries use a system of indicators aimed at quantifying the quality and level of investment in human capital, social security, personal security, etc. Developing countries take into consideration those systems of indicators that determine the level of poverty and welfare.
The quality of life can be analyzed at both micro and macroeconomic level.
The subject of quality of life developed rapidly in the '60s as a reaction to the abundance crisis in the developed countries. The basic idea started from the fact that economic growth should not be an aim in itself, but a means of creating better living conditions, of meeting the needs of a particular community. A series of living standard indicators have been developed for assessing the living conditions.
The main types of quality of life indicators are:
- Status indicators of the different components of human life; - Need or aspiration indicators;
- Complex indicators resulting from relating the status to the needs;
- Perceived quality of life indicators – which determine how the members of a community assess the quality of the different components of their lives by themselves;
- Indicators of the critical symptoms of the quality of life.
Development is a preamble to improving the quality of life and includes both the material elements such as infrastructure, housing quality and the living standard in general and the spiritual elements such as education, freedom of expression and cultural freedom.
"Human development can be defined as a process of enlarging people's capacity of option. Choices can regard different areas: political freedom and participation in community life, being educated and benefitting from freedom of expression, surviving and living a healthy life or enjoying a decent standard of living" (Mahbub, 1996).
2. In what way is affected the quality of life by the human development index?
Sustainable development is a condition for the full social/human development of the future generations, while the quality of life/human welfare is the goal of all these development processes. Of course, this distinction is not always admitted when it comes to measuring: human development indicators or sustainable development indicators, just like other social indicators, are often presented together with the quality of life indices. In turn, social development indicators include quality of life and sustainable
94 development measures and many authors consider that they need to be focused on the results, not on the inputs into the social system (Barnett, 1988).
The human development index was first introduced in the summer of 1990. The aim was to provide an indicator of a country’s level of development, which had to be more complete than the simple measurement of its national product. UNDP justified its attempt by the need to provide an informative value exceeding the strict quantitative aspects (UNPD, 2011).
The proposed indicator is an attempt to develop a simple tool for tracking the evolution of human development, much more deeply than other aggregate indicators and even more deeply than a series of statistical indicators (McGillivray; White, 2006).
In this context, the concept of human development is considered to be "a process that broadens the range of possibilities offered to the individuals”, whose fundamental requirements are lifetime and health, knowledge accumulation and possession of resources that enable them to benefit a decent life. These elements are expressed by the following three variables: life expectancy, education level and income.
According to the opinion of the indicator’s promoters, an authentic development allows individuals to dispose of these options. The development process will lead to a favourable climate which will offer individuals and the communities the chance to achieve their potential and lead productive, creative lives in accordance with their own needs and interests. Human development is converted into two vectors: on the one hand, the consolidation of personal capacities (through the progresses regarding health, knowledge and skills) and, on the other hand, the use that the individual assigns to these capacities, in productive or cultural, social or political purposes, during work or leisure.
The indicator tends to be a more significant assessing tool than the per capita income. Indeed, the income is a means of reaching human development, not an aim. By considering the strictly material dimension as one of the determinant factors of the living standard, although not reaching a comprehensive measurement of all its theoretical premises, the human development indicator assesses a country’s level of development from a qualitative point of view.
The Human Development Index is constructed as an average of three indicators: life expectancy at birth, education level and the standard of living, measured by the real GDP per capita. The Human Development Index can range between 0 and 1
(UNPD, 2011)
.Human development indicators have the following components:
- Human Development Index: life expectancy at birth, adult illiteracy rate, combined illiteracy rate, income per capita (PPP);
- Development indicators by gender: life expectancy at birth by gender, adult illiteracy rate by gender, combined illiteracy rate by gender, income per capita (PPP) and distribution of working income on women and men;
- Human development indicators for developing countries: the percentage of people with life expectancy under 40 years, adult illiteracy rate, percentage of people without access to running water, the percentage of people without access to health services, the percentage of children suffering of malnutrition;
- Human development indicators for industrialized countries: the percentage of people with life expectancy under 60 years, adult illiteracy rate, percentage of people living in poverty, long-term unemployment (12 months and more).
The Human Development Report Office strives at including as many UN member countries as possible in the HDI. To include a country in the HDI we need recent, reliable and comparable data for all three dimensions of the Index. For a country to be included, statistics should ideally be available from the relevant international data agencies.
Table 1: Human Development Index
27 EU members Human Development Index (HDI) Life expectancy at birth Mean - years of schooling Expected years of schooling Per capita GNI Const. 2005 PPP$ Per capita GNI rank minus HDI rank Non income HDI HDI rank