Analysis of Socio-Economic Development Through a System of Indicators

Abstract

A project at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development on "Contents and Measurement of Socio-Economic Development" has involved extensive examination of economic and social indicators (using 1960 data) and selection of a group of priority indicators on an empirical basis (but within the framework of generally accepted components of development). These indicators have been interrelated by a method of analysis called "correspondence analysis." This type of analysis provides the basis for plotting development profiles of individual countries, against a norm that changes with level of development; also for typological analysis, showing how development differs for different kinds of country. The correspondence system, plus scale transformations, further provides a means of constructing a general or synthetic indicator of development, which, among other things, serves to predict missing scores better than does the per capita G.N.P., including scores on economic as well as social variables.