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Keeping things simple: why the Human Development Index should not diverge from its equal weights assumption

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 15:45 authored by Lee M Stapleton, Guy D Garrod
Using a range of statistical criteria rooted in Information Theory we show that there is little justification for relaxing the equal weights assumption underlying the United Nation’s Human Development Index (HDI) even if the true HDI diverges significantly from this assumption. Put differently, the additional model complexity that unequal weights add to the HDI more than counteracts the improvement in goodness-of-fit. This suggests that, in some cases, there may be limited validity in increasing the complexity of a range of other composite sustainability indices.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Social Indicators Research

ISSN

0303-8300

Publisher

Springer Netherlands

Issue

2

Volume

84

Page range

179-188

Department affiliated with

  • SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2013-09-16

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