Development Economics

Economic development are the efforts that seek to improve the economic well-being and quality of life for a community by creating and/or retaining jobs and supporting or growing incomes and the tax base.
There are several indicators which attempt to measure the development of a nation, these are:

The Human Development Index (HDI)

HDI measures the development of a country in 3 areas:

• health - measured by life expectancy
• education - measured by adult literacy and number of years children are enrolled at school
• income per capita

The figures of HDI range from 0 to 1.  0 indicated no development. 1 indicated complete development:

• 0 – 0.49 = low development
• 0.5 – 0.69 = medium development 
• 0.7 to 0.79 = high development 
• more than 0.8 = very high development 

The HDI is a very useful means of comparing the level of development of countries. GDP per capita alone is clearly too narrow an indicator of economic development and fails to indicate other aspects of development, such as enrolment in school and longevity.

Life expectancy

A variety of factors may contribute to differences in life expectancy, including:

• The stability of food supplies
• War
• The incidence of disease and natural disasters

Adult literacy

The percentage of those aged 15 and above who are able to read and write a simple statement on their everyday life.

GDP per capita

GDP per capita is the commonest indicator of material standards of living, and hence is included in the index of development. GDP per capita It is found by measuring Gross Domestic Product in a year, and dividing it by the population.