Human Capital Notes
The measurement of human development in advanced regions
Abstract
This note presents two alternatives to the traditional Human Development Index (HDI), thus allowing a more accurate measurement of the development in advanced regions. These new indicators are applied to members of the EU-15, Spain and its autonomous communities.With the new index for international comparisons, Spain finds itself in one of the lowest positions in the EU-15, behind Greece and ahead of Portugal. Furthermore, with the change in variables, Spain falls to the penultimate position in the EU-15 education rankings and has one of the lowest welfare indices.In terms of regions, the use of the life potential variable instead of life expectancy means that regions like Navarre and the Basque Country come lower in the rankings, on account of a population ageing increase. On the other hand, if the percentage of the population with non-compulsory education is used as a variable, Madrid moves to the top of the rankings in education, while Asturias and Castille and Leon drop to the middle of the table.