Measuring Development

If development is contested in meaning, it is even more contested in measurement, because how we measure it determines which countries look successful and which policies appear to work. Measurement is never innocent: a chosen indicator directs attention, funding, and political credit toward whatever it captures and away from what it ignores. Understanding the major measures, and their blind spots, is therefore essential for anyone analyzing global development.

The most familiar measure is Gross Domestic Product per capita, the total value of goods and services produced within a country divided by its population. A closely related figure, Gross National Income per capita, adds income earned abroad by residents. To compare living standards across countries, economists adjust these figures us