Title: Evolution of global inequality in human well-being: a sensitivity analysis

Authors: Vanesa Jordá; Carmen Trueba; José María Sarabia

Addresses: Department of Economics, University of Cantabria, Av. los Castros SN, Santander 39003, Spain ' Department of Economics, University of Cantabria, Av. los Castros SN, Santander 39003, Spain ' Department of Economics, University of Cantabria, Av. los Castros SN, Santander 39003, Spain

Abstract: In this paper, we study global inequality in well-being taking as a theoretical benchmark the Human Development Index (HDI), which comprises variables of income, health and education. We use a two-step methodology that involves the construction of a composite index in the first step on which inequality measures are computed. The use of these measures requires making choices on the standardisation of the variables and their weights, the rate of substitution between dimensions and the degree of inequality aversion in the society. We investigate the impact of these choices on the evolution of unweighted inequality over the period 1980-2011. We find the robust result that global inequality in human well-being decreased over the last 30 years.

Keywords: HDI; Human Development Index; human well-being; multidimensional inequality; generalised entropy; global inequality.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCEE.2015.066218

International Journal of Computational Economics and Econometrics, 2015 Vol.5 No.1, pp.108 - 125

Received: 28 Dec 2013
Accepted: 30 Jun 2014
Published online: 17 May 2015 *

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