International comparisons

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International comparisons, or national evaluation indicators, focuses on the quantitative, qualitative, and evaluative analysis of one country in relation to others. Often, the objective is to compare one country's performance to others in order to assess what countries have achieved, what needs to change in order for them to perform better, or a country's progress in reaching certain objectives. [1]

Contents

Evaluative analysis

The data can be as simple as comparing countries' population or gross domestic product (GDP), but these do not evaluate performance. For example, if we'd like to compare the United States' economic productivity to Norway's, we could start by comparing GDP. Norway's GDP is nearly 500 billion U.S. dollars, while the United States' GDP is 15,680 billion dollars. [2] To evaluate fairly, we need to consider population. Norway's GDP per capita is actually larger than the U.S.: $99,558 per person compared to $51,749. [3] Such a metric is a more telling indication for international comparisons which simpler statistics fail to reveal.

Quality of life/subjective well-being comparisons

Some important evaluations cannot really be quantified, but are based on qualitative measurements, such as "Which country is happiest?" Evaluative analysis, while controversial, can determine subjective well-being to some extent. The United Nations' World Happiness Report [4] and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Better Life Index have both followed in the footsteps of the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Report in their attempts to quantify "happiness." The inevitably large role of money (quantified traditionally as GDP per capita) is generally acknowledged, yet does not explain why "poorer" countries report greater happiness on occasion. Further analysis can indicate other factors boosting the quality of life of a lower income country. The science of happiness evaluation is improving, but also may use very different combinations and weights of evaluative statistics. These differences result from different indicators being used and different weighting among the indicators, based on the values and interests of an organization. [5] [6]

Examples of international comparisons online

The following alphabetical list of online examples demonstrate how international comparisons work and should work, using many applications of evaluative analysis.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

The OECD publishes original research as often as on a weekly basis with the objective of affecting change as it strives to achieve its slogan: "Better policies for better lives." The Better Life Index is the organization's measure for subjective well-being. Because of its size, the OECD statistical database can be complex to navigate until one finds the part one is looking for. [7]

Social Progress Imperative

The Social Progress Imperative released its second version of the Social Progress Index. It is based on four "key design principles": exclusively uses social and environmental indicators (no economic indicators), outcomes not inputs (i.e. health status not health expenditure), actionability (translatable pragmatism), and relevance to all countries (neither exclusively focused on the poorest countries nor the advanced democracies). The Social Progress Index contains 54 indicators categorized within the following three categories: basic human needs, foundations of well-being, and opportunity. [8]

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

The United Nations Development Programme is predominantly focused on low income countries and their advancement, as evidenced in the objectives of the Millennium Development Goals, which strive to eradicate extreme poverty, HIV/AIDS, and promote education via sustainable development globally. [9] The UNDP's Human Development Report is the original, authoritative source on subjective well-being and its evaluative analysis since it first challenged GDP/capita as the indicator for quality of life with its first Human Development Index in 1990. [10] [11] The annual Human Development Index is a relevant challenge for over 140 countries regardless of their development stage.

World Bank

The World Bank aspires to impact development by promoting open data and subsequently transparency, accountability, and democracy as the private sector is emphasized for its role. [12] Its compiled database, the World Development Indicators, contains 18 topics containing hundreds of statistics. [13]

The World Factbook

Seven different categories with 79 different fields of statistics make up The World Factbook produced by the United States' Central Intelligence Agency. [14]

World Health Organization

With an emphasis on how international comparisons and evaluative analysis can impact world health, the World Health Organization offers the Global Health Observatory, a data site on various diseases, mortality rates, and other variables such as gender, class, and technology. Its contains over 50 datasets for as many as 194 countries. [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gross domestic product</span> Market value of goods and services produced within a country

Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced in a specific time period by a country or countries.

Quality of life (QOL) is defined by the World Health Organization as "an individual's perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns". Standard indicators of the quality of life include wealth, employment, the environment, physical and mental health, education, recreation and leisure time, social belonging, religious beliefs, safety, security and freedom. QOL has a wide range of contexts, including the fields of international development, healthcare, politics and employment. Health related QOL (HRQOL) is an evaluation of QOL and its relationship with health.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human Development Index</span> Composite statistic of life expectancy, education, and income indices

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic composite index of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators, which is used to rank countries into four tiers of human development. A country scores a higher level of HDI when the lifespan is higher, the education level is higher, and the gross national income GNI (PPP) per capita is higher. It was developed by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq and was further used to measure a country's development by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)'s Human Development Report Office.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Financial and social rankings of sovereign states in Europe</span> Overview of financial and social rankings of the sovereign states in Europe

This page compares the sovereign states of Europe on economic, financial and social indicators.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genuine progress indicator</span> Enhances Economic / Well-Being indicators

Genuine progress indicator (GPI) is a metric that has been suggested to replace, or supplement, gross domestic product (GDP). The GPI is designed to take fuller account of the well-being of a nation, only a part of which pertains to the size of the nation's economy, by incorporating environmental and social factors which are not measured by GDP. For instance, some models of GPI decrease in value when the poverty rate increases. The GPI separates the concept of societal progress from economic growth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gross National Happiness</span> Guiding philosophy of the government of Bhutan

Gross National Happiness (GNH), sometimes called Gross Domestic Happiness (GDH), is a philosophy that guides the government of Bhutan. It includes an index which is used to measure the collective happiness and well-being of a population. Gross National Happiness Index is instituted as the goal of the government of Bhutan in the Constitution of Bhutan, enacted on 18 July 2008.

The Human Poverty Index (HPI) was an indication of the poverty of community in a country, developed by the United Nations to complement the Human Development Index (HDI) and was first reported as part of the Human Development Report in 1997. It is developed by United Nations Development Program which also publishes indexes like HDI It was considered to better reflect the extent of deprivation in deprived countries compared to the HDI. In 2010, it was supplanted by the UN's Multidimensional Poverty Index.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Satisfaction with Life Index</span> Index that attempts to show life satisfaction in different nations

The Satisfaction with Life Index was created in 2007 by Adrian G. White, an analytic social psychologist at the University of Leicester, using data from a metastudy. It is an attempt to show life satisfaction in different nations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Happy Planet Index</span> Index of human well-being and environmental impact

The Happy Planet Index (HPI) is an index of human well-being and environmental impact that was introduced by the New Economics Foundation in 2006. Each country's HPI value is a function of its average subjective life satisfaction, life expectancy at birth, and ecological footprint per capita. The exact function is a little more complex, but conceptually it approximates multiplying life satisfaction and life expectancy and dividing that by the ecological footprint. The index is weighted to give progressively higher scores to nations with lower ecological footprints.

The economics of happiness or happiness economics is the theoretical, qualitative and quantitative study of happiness and quality of life, including positive and negative affects, well-being, life satisfaction and related concepts – typically tying economics more closely than usual with other social sciences, like sociology and psychology, as well as physical health. It typically treats subjective happiness-related measures, as well as more objective quality of life indices, rather than wealth, income or profit, as something to be maximized.

The Gender Development Index (GDI) is an index designed to measure gender equality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Where-to-be-born Index</span> Index by the Economist Intelligence Unit

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s where-to-be-born index attempts to measure which country will provide the best opportunities for a healthy, safe and prosperous life in the years ahead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legatum Prosperity Index</span> Annual ranking of countries by Legatum

The Legatum Prosperity Index is an annual ranking developed by the Legatum Institute, an independent educational charity founded and part-funded by the private investment firm Legatum. The ranking is based on a variety of factors including wealth, economic growth, education, health, personal well-being, and quality of life.

The OECD Better Life Index, created in May 2011 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, is an initiative pioneering the development of economic indicators which better capture multiple dimensions of economic and social progress.

Wikiprogress is a defunct online platform for sharing information on the measurement of social, economic and environmental progress. It is thought to facilitate sharing on ideas, initiatives and knowledge on "measuring the progress of societies". Like Wikipedia, it was open to all members and communities for contribution – anyone interested in "progress" could register.

Although for many decades, it was customary to focus on GDP and other measures of national income, there has been growing interest in developing broad measures of economic well-being. National and international approaches include the Beyond GDP programme developed by the European Union, the Better Lives Compendium of Indicators developed by the OECD, as well as many alternative metrics of wellbeing or happiness. One of the earliest attempts to develop such an index at national level was Bhutan's Gross National Happiness Index and there are a now a number of similar projects ongoing around the world, including a project to develop for the UK an assessment of national well-being, commissioned by the Prime Minister David Cameron and led by the Office for National Statistics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Happiness Report</span> Publication ranking national happiness based on respondent ratings of their lives

The World Happiness Report is a publication that contains articles and rankings of national happiness, based on respondent ratings of their own lives, which the report also correlates with various life factors. As of March 2023, Finland has been ranked the happiest country in the world six times in a row.

Med Jones is an American economist. He is the president of International Institute of Management, a U.S. based research organization. His work at the institute focuses on economic, investment, and business strategies.

International rankings of Haiti include economic, health, and political data.

References

  1. ↑ "International Comparison Program". OECD. 25 March 2005. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
  2. ↑ "GDP (current US$)". World Bank. 2012. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
  3. ↑ "GDP per capita (current US$)". World Bank. 2012. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
  4. ↑ UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (2013). "World Happiness Report 2013". Archived from the original on 27 November 2015. Retrieved 17 March 2014.
  5. ↑ "OECD Guidelines to Measuring Subjective Well-Being" (PDF). Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development: 140–149. 2013. doi:10.1787/9789264191655-en. ISBN   9789264191648.
  6. ↑ "World Happiness Report 2013" (PDF). United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. 2013. pp. 139–151. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 October 2013. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
  7. ↑ "OECD Statistics". Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. OECD. 2014. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
  8. ↑ "Social Progress Imperative". 2014. Archived from the original (web) on 2015-05-01. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
  9. ↑ "Millennium Goals Background". United Nations Development Programme. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  10. ↑ "World Happiness Report 2013" (PDF). United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. 2013. p. 140. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 October 2013. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  11. ↑ "Human Development Report 1990". United Nations Development Programme. 1990. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  12. ↑ Prasanna Lal Das; Alla Morrison (8 January 2014). "From open data to development impact – the crucial role of the private sector". Open Data. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  13. ↑ "World Development Indicators Databank" (web). World Bank. 2013. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
  14. ↑ "The World Factbook". Central Intelligence Agency. Central Intelligence Agency. 2013. Archived from the original (web) on June 1, 2007. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
  15. ↑ "Global Health Observatory". World Health Organization. 2013. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
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