A CrossCountry Analysis: the Effect of Income, Life Expectancy, and Education on the Human Development Index

Abstract

Although the Human Development Index (HDI) has garnered criticism for its simplistic weighting scheme, the nationallyrecognized index is still used by governments to determine the effectiveness of policy decisions. This study looked at the index’s three main factors represented by income, health, and life expectancy and narrowed down the broad factors into separate proxy factors. The proxy variables were then analyzed against the HDI to determine which factors impacted the index the most. By identifying more relatable and specific variables, this study is especially unique in that it provides governments with a list of factors they can effectively target to improve their HDI rankings.