HDRO removes Kahnemann & Deaton reference after facing criticism for justification of maximum income threshold in HDI

The Human Development Report Office (HDRO) in New York, which is part of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has made a change in the technical notes for the human development report and the accompanying Human development index (HDI). For the 2021/22 report (and in the preceding years), the maximum limit for income was justified by reference to a paper by Kahnemann and Deaton:

The maximum is set at $75,000 per capita. Kahneman and Deaton (2010)* have shown that there is virtually no gain in human development and wellbeing from annual income above $75,000 per capita. 

* High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being 

In the summer of 2022, I pointed out to the Chief statistician at the HDRO that this justification is wrong and misleading on several accounts, since the claims made in the technical notes were not supported by claims made in Kahneman and Deaton´s article. The chief statistician acknowledged that I was correct. My criticism was repeated in an invited talk I gave in the HDRO Seminar (from a distance, digitally) on March 21st 2023.

In the technical notes for the 2023/24 report, it now says, with no reference:

"The maximum is set at $75,000 per capita so that additional income above the maximum does not directly contribute to a country’s HDI value or improve its ranking."

While the HDRO has in this way removed an erronous justification for the maximum income threshold, the threshold now stands without any justification whatsoever.

Havana conference om comparative welfare and people`s experience of the welfare system cancelled

The conference “Comparative Welfare: Cuban and Nordic Welfare: People`s experience of the welfare system”, which was to be held in Havana, Cuba, November 27th to December 1st, has been cancelled by the University of Havana. I was invited to speak as a keynote speaker.

#3

Today I have had a writing day, the 3rd this Autumn, focussed on my re-working of my so-called UNDP letter, now aimed for Journal of Human Development and Capabilities. I have also updated myself on the UNDP´s work towards HDR 2023.

Chronicle on latest HDI data in Stavanger Aftenblad

Today my chronicle "Menneskelig utvikling i revers etter pandemien" (Human development in reverse after the pandemic) was published in print in the Norwegian regional daily Stavanger Aftenblad. It was also quoted on p. 2 in the newspaper.

#17

Today I have had half an article writing day devoted to my wasted growth articles, with some 200 words added to the third article, and table of contents developed and abstract drafted. Number of writing days this Autumn is up to 17.

#16,5

Today I have had an article writing day, doing some planning for the next few months and re-starting my work on my second and third wasted growth article (elements/fragments are in place but full development remains). I decided to aim for Social Indicators Research for the second and affirmed that I aim for Journal of development economics for the third. Length and format requirements for both articles are now clear to me.

So far this autumn I have had 16,5 article writing days.

#8

Today I have had an article writing day, with two key texts read and some 100 words added to my wasted growth articles, plus my 2019 paper "Human development, inequality and social risks in Latin-America and the Nordic countries" re-read and submitted to the Second World Inequality Conference.

Number of writing days so far this Autumn is up to 8.

ISQOLS 2021 presentation scheduled for August 26th at 4 pm.

My paper "Human development, inequality and social risks in Latin-America and the Nordic countries" has been scheduled for live online presentation at the 2021 conference of the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS), to be held August 25-27th (cf. conference program), on Thursday August 26th at 4 - 5.40 pm CEST, as part of the session “Well-Being in the World III”. My presentation, which will be held 4 - 4.25, will also be recorded and accessible for later viewing by conference participants.

#33

Today I have had an article writing day devoted to my wasted growth articles, with some 600 words written and two tables updated for my article "Wasted growth in rich vs. poor countries: The marginal cost of human development".

Number of writing days this Spring is up to 33.

Welfare paper on Latin-America and the Nordic Countries to be presented at ISQOLS 2021

My paper "Human development, inequality and social risks in Latin-America and the Nordic countries" (see also the full article - Open Access) has been accepted for oral presentation at the  2021 ISQOLS Annual Conference: Quality-of-life and adaptation in a virulent world, to be held digitally August 23rd-27th

Abstract for ISQOLS 2021: "Human development, inequality and social risks in Latin-America and the Nordic countries"

I have just submitted the abstract "Human development, inequality and social risks in Latin-America and the Nordic countries" for the 2021, virtual conference of the International society for quality-of-live studies (ISQOLS 2021).

***

Human development, inequality and social risks in Latin-America and the Nordic countries

This presentation is based on a published article, Tønnessen (2019), which provides an overview and analysis of human development, inequality and people´s perception of social and economic risks in Latin America and the Nordic countries. While Nordic countries rank very highly on the UN´s Human Development Index (HDI) and are known for their ‘Nordic welfare model’, Latin American countries have been making significant progress economically, and with regard to health and education. However, inequality levels remain high throughout Latin America, representing an obstacle to further human development in the region. This is evidenced by the UN´s inequality-adjusted HDI data, among other sources. High levels of inequality translate to a poorer-than-average social welfare for significant portions of the populations in Latin American countries. To a large extent, actual living conditions are reflected in what people perceive as social risks when looking ahead and thinking about their own prospects, as well as those of their families. Improved and more equal living conditions are therefore likely to change people´s life satisfaction, in addition to what they are the most concerned about. In this article, people´s perception of social risks in selected Latin American and Nordic countries is analysed based on data from the OECD´s Cross-National Survey on Social and Economic Risks.   

Reference  

Tønnessen, Morten 2019. Human development, inequality and social risks in Latin America and the Nordic countries. Journal of Comparative Social Work 14(1). 28 pp. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31265/jcsw.v14i1.231

Autumn´s 10th article writing day

Today I have had this autumn´s 10th article writing day, devoted to work on my article "Wasted growth". Some 500 words written, this includes 2 tables generated and work on one more commenced.

Latin-America/Nordic countries article reaches 20 reads on RG

My article "Human development, inequality and social risks in Latin-America and the Nordic countries" has reached 20 reads on ResearchGate. Read it here.

Article, editorial, special issue on welfare (JCSW) published

Our special issue of Journal of Comparative Social Work, "Welfare in Latin America", has just been published. The whole issue is open access. I have been coordinating guest editor, and contribute to editorial plus an article of my own.

References:

Morten Tønnessen, with Sarah Hean, Siv Oltedal and Angela Pena (guest eds.) (2019). „Welfare in Latin America and the Nordic countries“. Special issue. Journal of Comparative Social Work14(1). 189 pp. URL: https://journals.uis.no/index.php/JCSW/issue/view/30

Morten Tønnessen, Sarah Hean, Siv Oltedal and Angela Pena (2019). Welfare in Latin America and the Nordic countries – editorial notes. Editorial. Journal of Comparative Social Work14(1). 8 pp. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31265/jcsw.v14i1.230

Morten Tønnessen (2019). Human development, inequality and social risks in Latin America and the Nordic countries. Journal of Comparative Social Work14(1). 28 pp. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31265/jcsw.v14i1.231

Welfare article accepted for publication inJournal of comparative social work

My article "Human development, inequality and social risks in Latin America and the Nordic countries" has been accepted for publication in Journal of comparative social work. I twill appear in a special issue I´m co-editing on "Welfare in Latin America and the Nordic countries".

Spring´s fifth article writing day - welfare article revised

Today I have had the Spring´s fifth article writing day, and finished revising my article "Human development, inequality and social risks in Latin-America and the Nordic countries", which is written for a forthcoming special issue of Journal of Comparative Social work titled "Welfare in Latin America and the Nordic countries".

Fourth article writing day

Today I had this Spring´s fourth article writing day, working on revising my article "Human development, inequality and social risks in Latin America and the Nordic countries".

Some writing at writing trip´s last day

At the last day of this writing trip to Copenhagen, Denmark, where I have stayed at Radisson Blu Scandinavia Hotel for 98% of the time, I have made edits to "Socialization of captive wolves improves animal welfare and expands behavioral repertoire", which I co-write with Laura Kiiroja, and finished my article "Human development, inequality and social risks in Latin America and the Nordic countries".

And now I am off to Christmas vacation, in a few hours.

Autumn´s 11th writing day

Today I had this autumn´s 11th writing day, with some 5 hours devoted to (almost) finishing my article "Human development, inequality and social risks in Latin-America and the Nordic countries".

Autumn´s tenth writing day

Today I finally had this autumn´s tenth writing day (cf. previous posts), with 6 hours devoted to finalizing/revising our editorial "Phenomenology and Biosemiotics" and towards completing my article "Human development, inequality and social risks in Latin-America and the Nordic countries".