Technology and Human Development

Abstract

This paper has two main objectives. The first is to focus on the role of technology, in combination with human development, in generating the growth needed for further increases in human development, which is seen as the bottom-line output. The second objective is to explore how technology measured by total factor productivity can itself be better explained by way of examining the role of openness, foreign direct investment and various types of patents. The contrast between Latin America and Asia with respect to these variables is established.

Keywords:

• Human development
• Capability approach
• Economic development
• Well-being
• Measurement

Notes

1 The UNDP mentions that the education component of HDI* is calculated using data of the mean of years of schooling for adults aged 25 years and expected years of schooling for children of school-entering age. Mean years of schooling are estimated based on educational attainment data from censuses and surveys available in the UNESCO Institute for Statistics database and the Barro and Lee (2012) methodology. Expected years of schooling estimates are based on enrolment by age at all levels of education and population of official school age for each level of education, and is capped at 18 years.