Human Development and Poverty in Asia-Pacific
Offered by: Srijit Mishra (Spring 2015)
National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan
Course Objective
This course, as the title suggests, will dwell into two themes: Human Development and
Poverty. The focus will be on three inter-related aspects, viz., philosophical or
conceptual, analytical measurement, and applications. In dealing with conceptual issues
from a foundational perspective, the discussion will be on freedom, capability, and justice
among others. The discussion on measurement issues will be a critical take on poverty,
disparity and human development index among others. The applications will have an
Asia-Pacific focus, but limited to a specific country for each aspect being discussed and it
could also incorporate examples from outside the region. Students, either in groups or
together, can also decide to have a hands-on experience of an issue of concern from a
human development perspective by doing a field survey in Taipei. At the end of the
course the students are expected to be familiar with the conceptual and measurement
issues discussed and will also be able to apply them in their own work.
Course Description
The conceptual or philosophical issues will be as follows. Freedom, or development as
freedom, would largely draw on Sen. The discussions on capability will be on the notions
by Sen and Nussbaum among others. On justice, we will discuss Rawls’ and juxtapose it
to that of Sen. On measurement issues we will begin with Rowntree’s classic work on
poverty, extend that discussion to decomposition of poverty change (on account of
growth, inequality and population effects), and then get into the discussion of measuring
multidimensional poverty. Other measurement aspects covered will be secluded and
proximate illiteracy, group differential measure, a critical take on the human development
index, and group-disparity adjusted measure of deprivation. On applications, one has
some amount of flexibility to bring in issues that are of contemporary interest, but by way
of illustration one could mention that the discussions can be on inclusiveness of human
development in the Asia-Pacific region.
Course Content-cum-Schedule
0: Introduction and overview
1: What is Human Development?
2: Ends and Means of Development (Development as Freedom)
3: Capability: Beings and Doings
4: Capability: Endorsing a List for a Normative Conception
5: Justice as Fairness
6: Justice: Transcendental vs Comparative
7: The Poverty Line
8: Decomposing Poverty Change
9: Multidimensional Poverty
10: Secluded and Proximate Illiteracy
11: Group Differential Measure
1
12: Human Development Index
13: Deprivation adjusted for Group Disparities
14: Human Development Reports
15: Inclusiveness of Human Development in the Asia-Pacific region
Teaching Methods
The lectures would be interactive. For this it is necessary that the students have read the
essential readings. Independently, the students will also have to make presentations or
some assignment related work. Broadly speaking, the classes will be divided into three
parts, lectures, assignment related presentations and discussions.
Teaching Assistant
Will specify the role if the university will provide a teaching assistant.
Requirement/Grading
Students are required to submit a term paper of about 20 pages (around 5000 words) at
the end of the semester. For writing the term paper, the students are to choose their own
topics related to the theme of the course and have it approved by the instructor. This will
have 40% weight out of 100%.
Class participation, including assignments, presentations and discussions, will account for
60% out of 100%.
Some possible assignments could include, but will not be limited to, the writing of a
review for 750 words and doing a field survey. For writing a review, the student can
choose a book or poem or movie or play or painting and have it approved by the teacher.
However, the write-up has to be based on the theme of the paper and makes us of
concepts discussed in the class. Before submitting the write-up the review has to be
presented in the class. The field-survey should be on an issue of concern from a human
development perspective and it will be firmed up in the first/second lecture after
discussion with the students.
Reading List:
Content wise details: * indicates essential readings, # related readings, others could be
tangential
1.1
1.2
1.3
*Sen, Amartya (2000) “A Decade of Human Development,” Journal of Human
Development,
1
(1),
17-23,
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14649880050008746.
#Alkire, Sabina (2002) Dimensions of Human Development, World Development,
30
(2):
181-205,
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.189.1366&rep=rep1&typ
e=pdf.
#HDRO
Outreach
(2015)
“What
is
Human
Development?,
http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/what-human-development.
2
1.4
1.5
1.6
2.1
2.2
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6
3.7
3.8
3.9
4.1
UNDP (1990), ‘Overview’, Human Development Report 1990, Oxford University
Press,
http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/219/hdr_1990_en_complete_nostats.p
df.
UNDP (2010), 'Overview', Human Development Report 2010 - The Real Wealth of
Nations: Pathways to Human Development, Palgrave Macmillan,
http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/270/hdr_2010_en_complete_reprint.p
df
UNDP (2014), 'Overview', Human Development Report 2014 – Sustaining Human
Progress:
Reducing
Vulnerabilities
and
Building
Resilience,
http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/hdr14-report-en-1.pdf.
*Sen, Amartya (1999), Development as Freedom, Oxford University Press, Delhi.
pp. 1-53 (particularly, introduction and chapter 2, pp.1-11, 35-53).
#Streeten, Paul (1994), “Human Development: Means and Ends,” American
Economic Review, 84 (2): 232-237, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2117835.
*Sen, Amartya (1985) Commodities and Capabilities, Chapter 1-4 (primarily chapter
2).
#Kuklys, Wiebke (2005), Amartya Sen's Capability Approach: Theoretical insights
and empirical applications, Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
#Pattanaik, Prasanta K, and Xu, Yongsheng (2007), “Minimal relativism,
dominance, and standard of living comparisons based on functionings”, Oxford
Economic Papers, 59, 354-374, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4500113.
#Pattanaik, Prasanta K, and Xu, Yongsheng (2012), “Some foundational issues in the
functioning and capability approach to the concept of well-being”, in UNESCOEOLSS Joint Committee (eds.), Social and Cultural Development of Human
Resources, in Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems(EOLSS), Developed under the
Auspices of the UNESCO, EOLSS Publishers, Oxford ,UK, [http://www.eolss.net].
#Robeyns, I (2005): The Capability Approach: A Theoretical Survey" Journal of
Human
Development,
6
(1),
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/146498805200034266.
#Sen, Amartya (1989) Development as Capability Expansion, Chapter 1 in S
Fukuda-Parr and AK Shiva Kumar (eds) Readings in Human Development, Oxford
University
Press.
Also
see,
http://www.economia.unimore.it/Picchio_Antonella/Sviluppo%20umano/svilupp%
20umano/Sen%20development.pdf.
Alkire, S (2005) “Why the Capability Approach?” Journal of Human Development,
6 (1), http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/146498805200034275.
Biggeri, Mario, Renato Libanora, Stefano Mariani and Leonardo Menchini (2006),
Children Conceptualizing their Capabilities: Results of a Survey Conducted during
the First Children's World Congress on Child Labour, Journal of Human
Development,
7
(1):
59-83,
DOI:
10.1080/14649880500501179,
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14649880500501179.
Lancaster, K (1966) A New Approach to Consumer Theory, Journal of Political
Economy, 74: 132-157, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1828835.
*Nussbaum, Martha (2003) Capabilities as Fundamental Entitlements: Sen and
Social
Justice,
Feminist
Economics,
9
(2-3):
33-59,
DOI:
3
4.2
4.3
4.4
5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4
5.5
6.1
6.2
6.3
6.4
6.5
6.6
6.7
7.1
7.2
10.1080/1354570022000077926,
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1354570022000077926.
#Charusheela, S (2009), Social analysis and the capabilities approach: a limit to
Martha Nussbaum's universalist ethics, Cambridge Journal of Economics 33: 11351152.
DOI
10.1093/cje/ben027,
http://cje.oxfordjournals.org/content/33/6/1135.full.pdf+html.
Nussbaum, Martha C (2006) Education and Democrtatic Citizenship: Capabilities
and Quality Education, Journal of Human Development, 7 (3): 385-395. DOI:
10.1080/14649880600815974,
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14649880600815974.
Nzegwu, N. 1995. Recovering Igbo traditions: a case for indigenous women’s
organizations in development, in Nussbaum, M. C. and Glover, J. (eds), Women,
Culture,
and
Development,
Oxford,
Clarendon
Press,
http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/0198289642.001.0001/acprof9780198289647-chapter-21.
*Rawls, J (2000) Justice as Fairness: A Restatement, The Belknap Press, Chapter 1
and 2 (especially sections §1-8, 13.1, 18).
#Rawls, J (1971) A Theory of Justice, The Belknap Press.
#Rawls, J (1957) Justice as Fairness, Journal of Philosophy, 54 (22): 653-662,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2021929.
#Rawls, J (1958) Justice as Fairness, Philosophical Review, 67 (2): 164-194,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2182612.
#Rawls, J (1985) Justice as Fairness: Political not Metaphysical, Philosophy and
Public Affairs, 14 (3): 223-251, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2265349.
*Sen, Amartya (2006) “What do we want from a theory of justice,” Journal of
Philosophy, 103 (5): 215-238, www.jstor.org/stable/20619936.
#Mishra, Srijit (2014), A Possible Defence of Rawls: A Note, Presented at ‘Global
Justice and the Global South’, University of Delhi, 25-27 April 2014.
#Sen, Amartya (2009) The Idea of Justice, Penguin Books, London.
Also see 11 papers in the January-June 2011 issue of the Indian Journal of Human
Development,
http://www.ihdindia.org/ihdjournal/display.aspx?issue=JanuaryJune%202011 and four papers in the November 2010 (Volume 11, Issue 4) issue of
the
Journal
of
Human
Development
and
Capabilities,
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cjhd20/11/4.
Anderson, T, Burton, J and Torrance, T (1984) 'Causation, Social Science and Sir
John
Hicks',
Oxford
Economic
Papers,
36(1):
1-11,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2662627.
Hicks, John (1979) Causality in Economics, Blackwell, Oxford. (Chapters 1 and 2).
Mackie, JL (1965) 'Causes and Conditions', American Philosophical Quarterly, 2
(4): 245-264, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20009173.
*Rowntree, BS (1908) Poverty: A Study of Town Life, Macmillan,
https://archive.org/details/povertyastudyto00rowngoog, (particularly chapter 4).
Foster, J., Greer, J., Thorbecke, E. (1984) A class of decomposable poverty measures,
Econometrica 52 (3): 761-766, www.jstor.org/stable/1913475.
4
8.1
8.2
8.3
8.4
8.5
8.6
9.1
9.2
9.3
10.1
10.2
10.3
10.4
10.5
10.6
10.7
*Mishra, Srijit (2014), Decomposing Poverty Change: Deciphering Change in Total
Population and Beyond, Review of Income and Wealth, DOI: d 10.1111/roiw.12155,
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/roiw.12155/full.
#Heshmati, A. (2004), A review of decomposition of income inequality. IZA
Discussion Paper No. 1221. Institute for the Study of Labor, Bonn,
http://ftp.iza.org/dp1221.pdf.
#Son, H.H. (2003) “A new poverty decomposition,” Journal of Economic Inequality
1 (2): 181-187, http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023%2FA%3A1026122624752.
Jain, L. R., Tendulkar, S. D. (1990) “Role of growth and distribution in the observed
change in headcount ratio measure of poverty: a decomposition exercise for India,”
Indian Economic Review 25 (2): 165-205.
Kakwani, N. (2000) “On measuring growth and inequality components of poverty
with application to Thailand,” Journal of Quantitative Economics 16 (1): 67-78.
Kakwani, N., Subbarao, K. (1990) “Rural poverty and its alleviation in India,”
Economic
and
Political
Weekly
25
(13):
A2-A16,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/4396096.
*Alkire, S and Foster, J (2011) Counting and Multidimensional Poverty
Measurement, Journal of Public Economics, 2011, 95 (8-9): 46-487. The OPHI
Working Paper version is available at: http://www.ophi.org.uk/wpcontent/uploads/OPHI-wp32.pdf?cda6c1.
#A number of resources on the application of this method are available in OPHI
website, http://www.ophi.org.uk/resources/.
Kumar, Rishi (2015), Issues in poverty in Rural India, Indira Gandhi Institute of
Development Research, Mumbai (under evaluation). Particularly chapter 3
(Different approaches to identify the poor: do they converge?).
*Mishra, S (2005) Secluded and Proximate Illiteracy: Comparing Situations, Social
Indicators Research, 70: 231-240, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27522162.
#Basu, K. and Foster, J.E. (1998), ‘On measuring literacy’, Economic Journal
108(6), pp. 1733–1749, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2565837.
#Basu, Kaushik, and Lee, Travis (2009) “A new and easy-to-use measure of literacy,
its axiomatic properties and an application,” Social Choice and Welfare 32(2): 181196, http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00355-008-0317-9.
#Mishra, Srijit (2001) “Isolated and proximate illiteracy,” Economic and Political
Weekly 36(22): 2003-2008, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4410697.
Basu, K., Foster, J.E., and Subramanian, S. (2000) “Isolated and proximate illiteracy
and why these concepts matter in measuring literacy and designing education
programmes,” Economic and Political Weekly 35(1 and 2): 35-39,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/4408798.
Basu, K., Narayan, A, and Ravallion, M. (2001) “Is literacy shared within
households? Theory and evidence for Bangladesh,” Labour Economics 8(6): 649665, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537101000483.
Gibson, J. (2001) “Literacy and intrahousehold externalities,” World Development
29(1),
155-166,
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X00000826.
5
10.8 Lee, Travis (2008) “Benchmarking the effective literacy rate,” Mathematical Social
Sciences
56(2):
233-239,
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165489608000334.
10.9 Maddox, B. and Esposito, L. (2011) “Sufficiency Re-examined: A Capabilities
Perspective on the Assessment of Functional Adult Literacy,” Journal of
Development
Studies,
47
(9):
1315-1331,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2010.509788.
10.10 Mishra, S., and Mishra, U.S. (2004) “Secluded and proximate illiterates among
couples: implications for health of women and children,” Economic and Political
Weekly 39(7): 745-749, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4414650.
10.11 Subramanian, S (2004) “Measuring literacy: some extensions of the Basu-Foster
framework,” Journal of Development Economics, 73 (1): 453-463,
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304387803001470.
11.1 *Nathan, HSK and Mishra, S (2013) “Group Differential for Attainment and Failure
Indicators,” Journal of International Development, DOI: 10.1002/jid.2898,
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jid.2898/full.
11.2 #Mishra, S (2008) On Measuring Group-differentials Displayed by Socio-economic
Indicators: An Extension, Applied Economics Letters, 15 (12): 935-938,
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13504850600972238.
11.3 #Mishra, U. S. and S. Subramanian (2006) On Measuring Group-differentials
Displayed by Socio-economic Indicators, Applied Economics Letters, 13 (8): 519521, http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13504850500400413.
11.4 #Nathan, Hippu Salk Kristle and Mishra, Srijit (2008) On Measuring Groupdifferentials: Some Further Results, WP-2008-002, Indira Gandhi Institute of
Development Research, Mumbai, http://www.igidr.ac.in/pdf/publication/WP-2008002.
11.5 Kakwani, N (1993) Performance in Living Standards: An International Comparison,
Journal
of
Development
Economics,
41,
307-336,
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/030438789390061Q.
12.1 *Mishra, Srijit and Nathan, HSK (2014), Measuring HDI - The Old, the New and the
Elegant: Implications for Multidimensional Development and Social Inclusiveness,
Working Paper No 63, Asia Research Centre, London School of Economics and
Political Science, http://www.lse.ac.uk/asiaResearchCentre/_files/ARCWP63MishraNathan.pdf.
12.2 #Anand, S and Sen, A (1994) Human Development Index: Methodology and
Measurement,
Human
Development
Report
1994,
http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr1994/papers/oc12.pdf.
12.3 #Klugman, J, Rodriguez, F, Choi, H-J (2011) The HDI 2010: new controversies, old
critiques,
Journal
of
Economic
Inequality,
9:
249-288,
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10888-011-9178-z.
12.4 #Nathan, Hippu Salk Kristle, Mishra, Srijit (2010) Progress in Human Development:
Are we on the Right Path? International Journal of Economic Policy in Emerging
Economies,
3(3):
199-221.
IGIDR
Working
Paper
Version
is
http://www.igidr.ac.in/pdf/publication/WP-2010-010.
12.5 #Raworth, Kate Stewart, David (2005) Critiques of the Human Development Index:
A Review. In Sakiko Fakuda-Parr and A.K. Shiva Kumar, Readings in Human
6
12.6
12.7
12.8
13.1
13.2
13.3
14.1
14.2
14.3
15.1
Development,
Oxford
University
Press,
New
Delhi,
http://www.undp.org.ar/desarrollohumano/CritiquesofdeHumanevelopment.pdf.
Anand, S and Sen, A (1995) Gender Inequality in Human Development: Theories
and
Measurement,
Human
Development
Report
1995,
http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr1995/papers/sudhir_anand_amartya_sen.pd
f. Also in Sakiko Fukuda-Parr and A.K. Shiva Kumar (eds) Readings in Human
Development.
Mishra, Srijit and Nathan, Hippu Salk Kristle (2008) On A Class of Human
Development Index Measures, WP-2008-020, Indira Gandhi Institute of
Development Research, Mumbai, http://www.igidr.ac.in/pdf/publication/WP-2008020.
Nathan, Hippu Salk Kristle, Mishra, Srijit and Reddy, B. Sudhakara (2008), An
Alternative Measure of HDI, WP-2008-001, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development
Research, Mumbai, http://www.igidr.ac.in/pdf/publication/WP-2008-001.
*Subramanian, S and Majumdar, M (2002) On measuring deprivation adjusted for
group disparities, Social Choice and Welfare, 19 (2), 265-280,
http://www.springerlink.com/content/xypw8h5tw72jc0kf/fulltext.pdf.
#Majumdar, M and Subramanian, S (2001) Capability Failure and Group Disparities:
Some Evidence from India for the 1980s, Journal of Development Studies, 37 (5),
104-140, http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00220380412331322141.
#Subramanian, S (2011) Inter-Group Disparities in the Distributional Analysis of
Human Development: Concepts, Measurement, and Illustrative Applications, Review
of
Black
Political
Economy,
38(1):
27-52,
http://www.springerlink.com/content/vj35xvt784822307/.
#UNDP (Various Years) Human Development Reports. The focus could be on the
reports
in
2000
(human
development
and
human
rights,
http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/human-development-report-2000), 2004 (human
development and cultural liberty, http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/humandevelopment-report-2004),
and
2011
(sustainability
and
equity,
http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/human-development-report-2011) as also those
already indicated under 1 (reports of 1990, 2010 and 2014). However, if there is any
specific interest on any other theme then we could discuss those as well.
Mishra, Srijit (2011), Conflict Resolution through Mutuality: Lessons from Bayesian
Updating,
Journal
of
Quantitative
Economics,
9(1):
41-52,
http://www.jqe.co.in/journals/JQE_v9_n1_2011_p2.pdf.
Panda, Manoj et al (2005) Poverty Reduction Strategy as Implementation of the
Right to Development in Maharashtra, Report Submitted to the Centre for
Development and Human Rights, New Delhi, PP-053, Indira Gandhi Institute of
Development Research, Mumbai, http://www.igidr.ac.in/pdf/publication/PP053.pdf.
#UNDP (2015) Achieving Development Results in Asia and the Pacific, 2013-2014,
http://www.asiapacific.undp.org/content/rbap/en/home/library/annual_report/achievingdevelopment-results-in-asia-and-the-pacific-2013-2014/
7
15.2 Mehrotra, S et al (2011) India Human Development Report 2011: Towards Social
Inclusion, Institute of Applied Manpower Research and Oxford University Press,
New Delhi, http://www.pratirodh.com/pdf/human_development_report2011.pdf.
15.3 The link to Asia-Pacific HDRs is http://asiapacific-hdr.aprc.undp.org/.
Other General Readings on Human Development








Deneulin, S with Shahani, L (eds.) (2009) An Introduction to the Human
Development and Capability Approach: Freedom and Agency, Earthscan, London
and Sterling, VA and International Development Research Centre, Ottawa,
http://idl-bnc.idrc.ca/dspace/bitstream/10625/40248/1/128806.pdf.
Fukuda-Parr, Sakiko and Shiva Kumar, A. K., (eds) (2005) Readings in Human
Development: Concepts, Measures and Policies for a Development Paradigm,
Oxford University Press, New Delhi.
Shiva Kumar, A.K., Fukuda-Parr, Sakiko (eds.) (2009) Handbook of Human
Development: Concepts, Measures, and Policies, Oxford University Press, New
Delhi. (A revised version of the previous book).
Journal
of
Human
Development
and
Capability,
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cjhd20.
December 2007 issue of Oxford Development Studies also discusses about some
indicators and related measurement, http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cods20/35/4.
Indian Journal of Human Development, http://www.ihdindia.org/ihdjournal/.
Human Development Reports: http://hdr.undp.org/en or search using
http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports.
OPHI link (go to their publications): http://www.ophi.org.uk/
(There could be some further additions or changes as the course progresses. Some of the
links were checked some time ago and it is possible that they may not be functional. In that
case, use the appropriate link and also inform the teacher.)
8