Determining The Relationship Between Happiness And Human Development: Multivariate Statistical Approach

Abstract

It has been understood that it is not enough to consider just certain macro-economic indicators to determine the development level of countries. Human Development Index (HDI), which is a part of the Human Development Report (HDR) published by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is a complex index prepared for this end with a focus on education and health as well as income. Yet, once it was realized that this index had certain limitations, some other indices were created. Happy Planet Index (HPI), which was first used by New Economic Foundation (NEF) in 2006, is one of these indices. In this study, canonical correlation analysis, a multivariate statistical method was applied to examine the relation between HDI and HPI calculated for 150 countries. The empirical findings of the study have revealed that there is a very strong and meaningful canonical relation between HDI and HPI.

Keywords

• Human Development Index, Happy Planet Index, Multivariate Statistical Method, Canonical Correlation Analysis

MUTLULUK VE İNSANİ GELİŞMİŞLİK ARASINDAKİ İLİŞKİNİN BELİRLENMESİ: ÇOK DEĞİŞKENLİ İSTATİSTİKSEL YAKLAŞIM

Öz

Ülkelerin gelişmişlik düzeylerinin belirlenmesinde yalnızca belirli makro-ekonomik göstergelerin dikkate alınması yeterli olmadığı anlaşılmıştır. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) tarafından yayımlanan Human Development Report (HDR)’de yer alan Human Development Index (HDI) bu amaçla geliştirilen gelirin yanı sıra eğitim ve sağlık verilerini de göz önüne alan composite bir endekstir. Ancak bu endeksin belirli sınırlılıklarının fark edilmesiyle birlikte farklı birtakım endeksler hesaplanmaya başlanmıştır. New Economic Foundation (NEF) tarafından ilk kez 2006 yılında hesaplanan Happy Planet Index (HPI) bu endekslerdendir. Çalışmada seçilen 150 ülke için hesaplanan HDI ve HPI arasındaki ilişkiler çok değişkenli istatistik yöntemlerden kanonik korelasyon analizi ile araştırılmıştır. Çalışma sonucunda elde edilen ampirik bulgulardan HDI ve HPI arasında oldukça anlamlı ve güçlü bir kanonik ilişki olduğu saptanmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• İnsani Gelişmişilik endeksi, Mutlu Gezegen Endeksi, Çok Değişkenli İstatistiksel Metod, Kanonik Korelasyon Analizi

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