人類發展指數作為評估各國經濟真實發展水準指標

A Supplementary or True Measure of Economic Development? In the Case of Human Development Index

在經濟發展的研究領域中，如何衡量個別國家的經濟發展一直以來是最具有挑戰之一。在過去諸多已提出或曾使用過量化一國發展的評量指標中，人均國民生產毛額(GNI per capita)與人類發展指數(HDI)是其中兩種最受歡迎的方法。傳統所得法作為衡量一國經濟發展的指標，不是完美無瑕。主要是和它本身的侷限有關。HDI 開發目的是希望能夠提供另一個更具有準確度的量化方法測量一國經濟發展的真實水準。本研究旨在檢驗189 個國家的2019 年HDI 的排名來探討上述兩種方法，以確定哪種可以更精準的衡量一國的經濟發展。分析的結果顯示，一般而言，具有較高的國民所得水準的國家傾向於有更好的人類發展。然而，以上的關係並不這麼直接明顯。國家之間的國民所得差異化下卻產生相同的HDI 水準，再者，某些國家有著不同的HDI，可是它們卻有著相同的國民所得水準。這表示某些國家未能把經濟成長效益用來幫助提升人民的生活，而某些國家卻能公平的分配經濟效益來提升人民生活水準，這表示當評估經濟發展時，國民所得法和人類發展法都沒有充分納入所有的人類發展層面。當根據HDI 進行排序時，有些國家在以人類發展之排序，較其相對以經濟發展之排序順位提升，顯示這些國家可經由所得的平均分配，將經濟成長的效益用以增進人民福祉，而HDI 和GNI per capita 在排序之差異性比較，清楚地展現出東南亞地區的國家在分配經濟成長的果實上，較阿拉伯地區的國家更加為均衡。可是我們要意識到HDI 只是一個指數，太過於依賴它來衡量一國的真實發展水準是有誤導性的。為了充分衡量任何國家的真正經濟發展，我們必須考慮到其他人類發展的層面，例如：基本人權、乾淨水源的取得、空氣品質、社會和政治的權益。這些因素都應當納入人類發展的過程，才能夠達到一個比較有建構性的政府政策和準確的衡量任何國家的真正經濟發展水準。

"Theoretical and empirical issues in classifying development stages have occupied the field of economic development for several decades. An associated challenge is to provide a quantitative measure that characterizes a country’s true level of development progress and its relative economic status in the international arena. Based on such a measure, the precise nature of the economic, demographic, and sociocultural dimensions of the development problems could be determined. Among the many quantitative measures of development that been proposed or used, two of the most popular methods, that attempt to deal with the problems of assessment of such comparative changes or progress among countries via the classification of development stages are Gross National Product per capita and Human Development Index. The purpose of this study is to examine and compare both methods in order to determine whether human development approach could be served as an accurate assessment on the true level of development progress. When the two measures are compared for countries in the world, there appears to be significant variations in development among countries classified as developing. This suggests that none of the indicators of development fully incorporate all the dimensions of development require to assess the true level of development progress. The analysis of both income and human development approach suggests that different countries have translated their economic capacity into very different levels of well-being. Some countries have achieved approximately the same level of human development with diverse incomes. The link between economic growth and progress in human development is not automatic; in addition, significant human progress is possible even at fairly modest levels of income. When ranked according to Human Development Index, the rankings of all countries in the transition economy group in comparisons to rankings by income have improved. This indicates that these countries have made significant progress in human development by distributed the benefits of economic growth to enhance the lives of their people. The differences between Human Development Index and Gross National Income per capita ranks shows clearly that countries in the Southeast Asia region have made considerable efforts in distributing the benefits of economic growth more equitably than countries in the Arab States region."