In this study, we assess the validity of the United Nations' Human Development Index (HDI), a multi-faceted indicator of national welfare. For this purpose, the HDI is introduced into a previously published typology of welfare indicators (Cohen, E. H. 2000). The HDI appears to be a well-balanced indicator of welfare, close to the semantic center of the structure. However, it is somewhat more strongly correlated with the education and population rates regions of the structure than with the production and media regions. Human Development Index (HDI), Welfare, Smallest Space Analysis (SSA), External variables.
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