Question

. The United Nations Human Development Index (HDI) uses information about a country’s life expectancy at birth (health), expected years of schooling and mean years of schooling (education), and Gross National Income per capita (standard of living) to create a measure that ranges from 1 (very high) to 0 (very low). For 2017, the United States had a value of 0.924, compared to 0.926 for Canada and 0.922 for the United Kingdom – very similar values. Based on this information, suppose a developing country (such as Afghanistan and Haiti which each had a value of 0.498) asks for your advice on which country it should try to emulate in order to increase its level of development and economic growth. Which country would you choose? Explain what additional information about each country would be important to making this assessment.

Answer 1

I would choose Canada (as it has a higher HDI value)

Other additional information needed before making the assessment are: Corruption level in the country, living standards of people, health status, Environmental quality, How strict the rules in the country are, type of governance followed in the country, international trade patterns etc.

These factors will also affect the decision to be made while trying to emulate the growth levels.