Efficiency in human Development: a Data Envelopment Analysis Efficiency in human Development: a Data Envelopment Analysis

The human development index (HDI) is a measure of development which allows countries' development to be assessed on the basis of three indicators that measure the health, education, and standard of living of the population. The UNDP also computes a human development index that excludes this last indicator, the non-income HDI. The HDI, like the non-income HDI, presents some striking inter-country disparities. In this study, we wish to demonstrate that inefficiency in the utilization of financial resources can have an incidence on non-income HDI scores. Thus, owing to a certain "waste" in their use of resources, countries with similar levels of spending may end up with differing levels of human development. We measure this efficiency using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method