The human development index: Yet another redundant composite development indicator?

In its Human Development Report 1990, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) proposes yet another composite indicator of development levels: the "human development index" (HDI). The HDI assesses intercountry development levels on the basis of three so-called deprivation indicators: life expectancy, adult literacy and the logarithm of purchasing power adjusted per capita GDP. Using simple statistical analysis, this paper questions both the composition of the HDI and its usefulness as a new index of development. It concludes that the HDI is both flawed in its composition and, like a number of its predecessors, fails to provide insights into intercountry development level comparisons which preexisting indicators, including GNP per capita, alone cannot. © 1991.