Author Description

Concerned with people around the world and how development can change and improve their lives, the Human Development Report 1990 addresses the meaning and measurement of human development and summarizes Third World nations' records in development over the past thirty years. Stressing the link between economic and social concerns, this important study offers specific strategies for human development in the 1990s, focusing on the restructuring of budgetary expenditures, and on the need for an international economic and financial environment conducive to human development. The Report also introduces a new method of measuring development--the human development index (HDI)--that supplements the traditional ranking of countries by gross national product per capita, and uses the HDI to classify countries as having low, medium, and high levels of human development. An annex to the Report discusses the effects of urbanization on human development, and the indicators for 1990 present data for 130 countries. Prepared under the overall guidance of Mahbub ul Haq and informed by a panel of consultants including such distinguished economists and development professionals as Gustav Ranis, Amartya K. Sen, Frances Stewart, Meghnad Desai, Paul Streeten, and Keith Griffin, this book is a definitive guide to human development in the 1990s. With its trenchant insights and a wealth of up-to-date information, the Human Development Report 1990 is an essential resource for development specialists, economists, and political scientists.