Human Development and the Path to Freedom

A new framework for measuring the evolution of human development and wellbeing in the modern world.

A major new account of the evolution of human development from c.1870 to the present using measures of health, access to knowledge, standards of living, and civil and political freedom. Leandro Prados de la Escosura shows how these measures can substitute for GDP per head as a more accurate measure of wellbeing.How has human development evolved during the last 150 years of globalization and economic growth? How has human development been distributed across countries? How do developing countries compare to developed countries? Do social systems matter for wellbeing? Are there differences in the performance of developing regions over time? Employing a capabilities approach, Human Development and the Path to Freedom addresses these key questions in the context of modern economic growth and globalization from c.1870 to the present. Leandro Prados de la Escosura shows that health, access to knowledge, standards of living, and civil and political freedom can substitute for GDP per head as more accurate measures of our wellbeing.