Multidimensional assessment of human development is increasingly recognized as playing an important role in assessing well-being. The focus of analysis is on the indicators measuring the three dimensions of Human Development Index (HDI) — standard of living, education and health, and their relationship with public social spending for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The study estimates the effects of public social spending on gross national income (GNI) per capita (in PPP in $), expected years of schooling and life expectancy for a sample of 68 countries. The relationship is robust to controlling for a variety of factors and the estimated magnitudes suggest a positive long-run effect of public educational spending on GNI per capita, public educational spending on expected years of schooling, and public health expenditures on life expectancy.

Multidimensional assessment of human development is increasingly recognized as playing an important role in assessing well-being. The focus of analysis is on the indicators measuring the three dimensions of Human Development Index (HDI) — standard of living, education and health, and their relationship with public social spending for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The study estimates the effects of public social spending on gross national income (GNI) per capita (in PPP in $), expected years of schooling and life expectancy for a sample of 68 countries. The relationship is robust to controlling for a variety of factors and the estimated magnitudes suggest a positive long-run effect of public educational spending on GNI per capita, public educational spending on expected years of schooling, and public health expenditures on life expectancy.

Human Development in an Unequal World deals with the twenty-first-century challenges of unstable economic growth and sustainability and the re-emergence of deprivations and inequalities in multiple realms. It argues that the broader perspective of human development is most suited in reorienting development towards a more equitable, sustainable, and empowering world. The authors discuss the concept and philosophy of the capabilities and human development approach, its measurement, the links between economic growth and human development, and the role of social sector policy, gender equality, and securing sustainability. In doing so, they analyse frameworks, processes, institutions, and actors, and weave together concepts, methods, and evidence from numerous developing countries. The chapters offer an integrated understanding of the importance of capabilities, freedoms, and human flourishing in the process of development. This volume calls for an approach that focuses on the humanness of development and brings people back to the centre stage—a phenomenon that has receded to the background in the neoliberal era.

The book argues that the Cuban Revolution warrants a closer look as a model of socialist human development. A re-reading of the Cuban Revolution from this angle engages unresolved issues in the theory of socialist humanism and the notion of human development popularized by the United Nations Development Programme (i.e., predicated on capitalism). UNDP economists and other agencies of international cooperation for development give a human face to a capitalist development process that is anything but humane. Socialism in Cuba has taken a very different form (socialist human development) than it did elsewhere in the twentieth century. The Cuban Revolution's unique characteristics enabled it to survive adverse conditions - a 'near-perfect storm' - that still threaten its evolution.

Economic development depends heavily on the growth of social sectors like education, healthcare, gender equality, as well as factors like income, consumption, investment and trade. This book examines the interlinkages between development, good governance and spending on social growth. The book focuses on different areas of social growth, public welfare and poverty reduction including managing human resources, corruption in public institutions and public spaces as well as health and welfare measures. The chapters in the volume highlight the role of government interventions in boosting human development – particularly in developing countries in Asia and Africa and many developed countries in the post-COVID scenario. The book also examines the foundations of government spending on development and effective governance while underlining the impact which social growth has on the economy. Rich in theoretical and empirical perspectives, this book will be useful for students and researchers of economics, sociology, political studies, public finance, development studies as well as for policymakers and think tanks working in the areas of human development.