'Polity' Human Development Indices

Abstract

In this paper I develop a normative framework for the design of a measure of human development that contains the UNDP’s Human Development Index (HDI) as a special case. The methodology allows for the collection of information from the public about what tradeoffs between the core variables one ought to find acceptable in the determination of the index while remaining broadly in line with what the HDI wishes to measure: human development and capabilities, as conceptualized by Sen (1985).