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Re: Human Development Index 2004

Paul wrote:

 It is not that I am against all indexes for all uses (and the HDI is among
the most benign).


I should have added that part of the impulse behind the development
of the HDI was to reduce pressure for redistribution - to shift the
focus from economic to social indicators. Of course, there are
virtues to foregrounding social over economic indicators, and lots of
people use the HDI complex for those purposes, but at the higher
levels, the more sinister spin applied.

My source on this is a former long-time UN press officer, and it was
subsequently confirmed by someone very close to Mahbub ul-Haq, the
Pakistani economist who guided the development of the index.

Doug

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