GUEST EDITORIAL

As a guest editor, it seems most proper to give attention and thoughts to the National Association for Interdisciplinary Ethnic Studies (NAIES), which by its very nature is a unique and singular organization. We have little in common with the larger professional academic entities. We are small In membership, but have the capacity to operate on the national level

Gender-based Indicators in Human Development - Correcting for ‘Missing Women’

Gender Development Index and Gender Empowerment Measure are two gender-based indicators provided by the United Nations Development Program. Population share of the genders enter the formulation of these indicators in such a way that it favours the better performing gender. This can lead to further additions to missing women. A correction is proposed to capture this anomaly. This alternative satisfies an axiom of Monotonicity with its two corollaries, that is, given attainments the measure maximizes at ideal sex ratio and vanishes when one of the genders becomes extinct. An empirical illustration by taking life expectancy data of countries is given.Ideality, Extinction, index, Inequality, Sex-ratio

Progress in human development: Are we on the right path?

The conventional measure of Human Development Index (HDI) is a linear average across dimensions, HDI1. Under this, poor attainments in any dimension gets perfectly compensated for better attainments in any other dimension HDI2, which is based on Euclidean distance measuring shortfall from the ideal, addresses the above anomaly. In our analysis of progress, we use HDI2 to develop the notion of an ideal path and penalty to capture deviation from this; and a measure of fluctuation. The measures are applied to 127 countries for the period 1990-2004. The results show that Sub-Saharan countries have suffered on account of sharp decline in health suggesting prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) epidemic. In case of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the income dimension got jolted in the nineties indicating their economic collapse after Soviet disintegration. We also find some of the emerging economies progressing well along the ideal path. On the eve of the 20th anniversary of Human Development Report, this paper is timely and would engage academia and public policy to have a critical look favouring a balanced development across the three dimensions of HDI - health, education and standard of living.Human Development Index (HDI), Ideal path, Measure of fluctuation, Measure of normalized-change, Sub-Saharan, Commonwealth Independent States (CIS)

Progress in Human Development - Are we on the right path?

The conventional measure of Human Development Index (HDI) is a linear average across dimensions, HDI1. Under this, poor attainments in any dimension gets perfectly compensated for better attainments in any other dimension HDI2, which is based on Euclidean distance measuring shortfall from the ideal, addresses the above anomaly. In our analysis of progress, we use HDI2 to develop the notion of an ideal path and penalty to capture deviation from this; and a measure of fluctuation. The measures are applied to 127 countries for the period 1990-2004. The results show that Sub-Saharan countries have suffered on account of sharp decline in health suggesting prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) epidemic. In case of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the income dimension got jolted in the nineties indicating their economic collapse after Soviet disintegration. We also find some of the emerging economies progressing well along the ideal path. On the eve of the 20th anniversary of Human Development Report, this paper is timely and would engage academia and public policy to have a critical look favouring a balanced development across the three dimensions of HDI - health, education and standard of living.Human Development Index (HDI), Ideal path, Measure of fluctuation, Measure of normalized-change, Sub-Saharan, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)