Abstract
The quantitative analysis presented in this chapter has two principal objectives. The first is to rank a large number of countries on the basis of one or more quantitative indicators of human resource development and to group them into levels of human resource development. The second is to determine whether there are significant statistical relationships among various human resource indicators and measures of economic development. If we can establish some quantitative benchmarks, these will be useful for a more detailed qualitative analysis of levels of human resource development.
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Notes
Ingvar Svennilson, in association with Friedrich Edding and Lionel Elvin, Targets for Education in Europe in 1970, Policy Conference on Economic Co-operation and Development, Washington, 1961, Paris, 1962. Diagram 5, p. 72, shows Gross National Product per capita and Enrolment Ratios for each of three age-groups, for 22 countries. Elsewhere, Edding has analysed the relationship between per capita expenditures (in U.S. dollars) on education in 18 countries and national income. Internationale Tendenzen in der Ausgaben für Schulen und Hochschulen, Kiel, 1958.
Estimates are reported in UNESCO, World Illiteracy at Mid-Century, Geneva, 1957, and also summarized for 136 countries
Norton Ginsburg, Atlas of Economic Development, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961, p. 38. One account of the reporting of literacy rates by a newer African country indicated that the figure was arrived at by increasing the previous figure by a percentage which slightly exceeded that of a neighbouring country.
Cf. Alexander Gerschenkron, Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective; A Book of Essays, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1961. ‘Is backwardness an operational term?… can a definition in terms of per capita output suffice? Obviously the level of per capita output may be the result of unfavorable climatic conditions or of poor endowment with natural resources. … One has to conclude, however reluctantly, that “degree of backwardness” defies exact measurement. … But … In practice we can rank the countries according to their backwardness and even discern groups of similar degree of backwardness.’ (pp. 43–4).
The source is Mikoto Usui and E. E. Hagen, World Income, 1957, Center for International Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., November 1959 (multilithed). The authors are careful in documenting their sources, their methods of conversion, the limitations of the data, and the ‘estimates’ involved. A possible alternative published source of comparable data, Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations, Report on the World Social Situation, 1961 (ch. iii), proved unsatisfactory because per capita national income figures (in U.S. dollars) were supplied by the United Nations Statistical Office only for groups of countries, not by individual countries. These data are apparently confidential by country, since they are used to determine country assessments for the U.N. budget. Subsequently, upon personal inquiry, the United Nations Statistical Office made available 1957–59 data for each country in wide dollar ranges, and called to our attention the Usui-Hagen study. Earlier, we had already decided to use the data in the Usui-Hagen study as more suitable for our purposes.
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© 1966 International Economic Association
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Harbison, F. (1966). Quantitative Indicators of Human Resource Development. In: Robinson, E.A.G., Vaizey, J.E. (eds) The Economics of Education. International Economic Association Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-08464-7_11
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