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The research aims to include good governance as a facet in the measurement of human development.

A modified Human Development Index (MHDI) was computed by including a governance dimension computed using the six governance indicators published by the World Bank. The rankings using the new index were obtained and compared to the rankings of the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP's) HDI.

The rank correlation of the original and modified indices was very high, but there were many big rank changes for individual countries in each HDI group. These rank changes could be largely reconciled in the light of the rankings of these countries in the Corruption Perceptions Index and the Democracy Index.

The research considers the measurement of human development at a point in time alone and incorporates 2010 governance indicators into the 2011 HDI, which could lead to a discrepancy in time periods considered. Furthermore, the governance indicators are measures of perceptions which can be subjective. The Practical implications paper does not delve into the country-specific factors that may have caused big rank changes.

The paper builds a case for incorporating, or at least providing the option of including a governance dimension in the HDI.

The paper is a novel attempt to incorporate good governance as a dimension in the HDI. It reasserts the need for policy-makers and governments to realize that peoples' capabilities cannot be realized in the absence of good governance, and that whilst improving other facets of human development, much attention needs to be paid towards establishing good governance.

Attempts to present a commentary on a few recent attempts at constructing a composite index of human development, and in the process briefly traces the trends in thinking that show marked shifts from economic growth to social development and to further human development. Shows that national income still remains an important indicator of overall development, and further, that various methodologies of compositing several indicators of development into one index produced broadly similar rank ordering of the nations.

Given the fact that the Islamic economic paradigm differs from the secular capitalist paradigm in terms of its emphasis on morality and spirituality, the author thinks that the current Human Development Index (HDI) does not capture human development from an Islamic perspective. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to provide a paradigmatic, theoretical, and conceptual model for the suggested Islamic HDI (iHDI) and second, to present several proxy variables for multi-dimensional iHDI and test the proposed index through empirical data for ten Muslim countries.

The author developed eight-dimensional composite iHDIs based on the understanding of human nature from the Tawhidi anthropology. These dimensions included physical, reasoning, spiritual, ethical, animal, social, deciding, and oppressive selves. The author measured them using nine different indices, three of which came from the conventional HDI (cHDI). The author then compared the rankings of those Muslim countries in iHDI to those in cHDI.

The iHDI rankings for all Muslim countries except two differed from those in cHDI. The difference was more substantial for countries with higher economic development. Thus, improved cHDI rankings for Muslim countries based on their economic development do not necessarily mean that they move toward ideal human development. This finding confirms the need for an alternative human development indexing approach from an Islamic perspective.

The paper is likely to initiate movement to develop an alternative HDI from Islamic perspective.

The paper findings have important policy implications for Muslim countries.

It is the first empirical paper showing how to develop an alternative HDI from an Islamic perspective.

Human development is the most modern development approach. However, the proposed human development indexes for implementation of Islamic human resource management (HRM) do not suffice to realize the Islamic developed society. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the economic‐managerial indexes of human development based on HRM from the viewpoint of Islam and The Quran.

This paper applies the hermeneutic method and considers the question: “what are the proper human resource (HR) economic‐managerial indexes from the viewpoint of Islam?”.

Referring to the Islamic development basics and goals, it analyzes economic interaction among Muslim activists in an objective situation of the human development from the viewpoint of Islam and finally, it proposes human development economic‐managerial indexes among other required indexes, through planning an acceptable economic quasi‐system.

In the Islamic approach, human development occurs when a person's capacities improve so that he/she becomes able to manage internal and external contradictions and conflicts; and steps forward in the route of the faith and the righteous deed and in the space of the widespread justice to reach the God proximity and to replace the natural life by the Hayat‐e‐Tayyebeh.

The purpose of this research is to study the relation between “restrictiveness” of a country's trade policy and its socio‐economic well‐being as reflected in the indicators of human development.

A recently‐developed trade‐restrictiveness‐index (TRI), which seems superior to almost all existing indexes of trade policy or “outward orientation”, is related with infant‐mortality, child‐mortality, maternal‐mortality, access to safe water, access to basic sanitation, and secondary‐school enrollment, which are well‐known and important measures of a country's human development and are closely related to several Millennium Development Goals. In addition to a consideration of the covariation between TRI and the six human‐development measures, estimates from parsimonious regression models are studied. Sensitivity checks are conducted by considering covariations and regression estimates for another trade‐policy index and different country groups.

The evidence overwhelmingly shows that, contrary to the position shared and disseminated widely, there is no indication that a more restrictive international trade policy has a significant negative association with human development or socio‐economic well‐being. Every correlation between trade restrictiveness index and human‐development measures is close to zero. Almost every regression coefficient of trade‐restrictiveness‐index lacks statistical significance at any meaningful level, and a consistent pattern is noted across two measures of trade policy and different country groups.

The evidence suggests much caution in the articulation and dissemination of the widely‐shared view that a more restrictive trade policy is detrimental to a country's socio‐economic well‐being. In particular, it implies that international organizations and developed‐country governments may not force developing‐country governments to adopt more “outward‐oriented” trade policies, but may let them choose the trade‐policy stance they find appropriate for their country. The estimates also reinforce the view that great care be exercised by scholars in the choice of trade‐openness measures for studying the relation between trade policy and economic well‐being.

In the vast literature on the nexus between trade policy and economic well‐being, this is probably the only study that relates six important measures of human development with what seems to be the best available index of restrictiveness of a country's trade policy. Therefore, the research, which is based on a fairly large cross‐country sample, may be deemed as highly significant on a topic of much scientific and policy relevance.

The human development index (HDI) and gender‐related development index (GDI) have become accepted as leading measures for ranking human well being in different countries. The purpose of this paper is to identify the planning policies that improve these indices and to also suggest modifications to the indices that yield more sensible policies.Design/methodology/approach – This paper solves the first‐best welfare problem in which the planner maximizes a development index subject to resource constraints.Findings – Planning strategies that maximize the HDI tend towards minimizing consumption and maximizing expenditures on education and health. Interestingly, such strategies also tend towards equitable allocations, even though inequality aversion is not modelled in the HDI. The paper shows that the GDI generates optimal plans with similar properties, and determine when the GDI and HDI generate consistent optimal plans. A problematic feature of the optimal plans is that the income component in the HDI (or GDI) does not play its intended role of securing resources for a decent standard of living. Rather, it acts to distort the allocation between health and education expenditure. The paper argues that it is better to drop income from the index. Alternatively, the paper considers net income, income net of education and health expenditures, as indicating capabilities not already reflected in the index. Finally, it compares how the modified indices and the HDI rank countries.Originality/value – The paper is believed to be the first to integrate development indices into national development planning.

It is widely recognised that the human development index (HDI) does not totally capture the rich content of the human development concept, necessitating a more adequate measure of human development. This paper introduces an ethics‐augmented human development index (E‐HDI) as a new indicator of socio‐economic change and development. The E‐HDI incorporates freedom, faith, environmental concerns and the institution of family in the HDI and ranks countries of the world accordingly. It is envisaged to be of practical use in national policy making and may also be related to agenda of the bilateral and international development agencies. Just as the HDI has managed to shift discussions beyond gross national product, the E‐HDI is expected to inject ethical concerns more explicitly into policy making in the contexts in which the human development reports are used.

Past research has identified a negative association between national income and female entrepreneurship rates. Data from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2012 are analyzed to determine whether the Human Development Index (HDI) predicts female entrepreneurship rates. The purpose of this paper is to indicate how other socioeconomic variables that measure human development interact with national income to predict female entrepreneurship rates.

Data were drawn from the 2012 GEM data set, which provides information on female entrepreneurship rates in 61 countries. To test relevant hypotheses, dependent and socio-demographic variables were sourced from international databases to perform quantitative cross-country regression analyses.

National income significantly predicted female entrepreneurship rates in the univariate analysis. However, this relationship became non-significant when development indices were added to the model. In contrast, the HDI, the Gender Inequality Index, and national religious composition were robust, significant predictors.

This study presents evidence that human and gender development indices, and national religious composition, are better predictors of female entrepreneurship rates than national income. Thus, studies on female entrepreneurship rates should account and adjust for human development and gender equality indices. As religiosity continues to be pervasive within multiple nations, policymakers should consider this when developing interventions geared toward promoting female entrepreneurship.

This paper identifies factors other than economic determinism to explain variance in female entrepreneurship rates and demonstrates that human development and gender inequality indices are better predictors of female entrepreneurship rates.

The goal of this article is to conduct macro‐level analysis of human capital (HC) development strategies, pursued by four countries commonly referred to as BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, and China).

This analysis is based on comparisons of macro indices of human capital and innovativeness of the economy and a review of related academic literature and government publications.

The study results suggest that in terms of present human capital capacity Russia and Brazil are ahead of China and India. However, during the last decade the governments of the latter two countries have initiated impressive national programs of HC development, which include significant investment and targeted government regulation in such areas as primary and secondary education, vocational education and training, and higher education, especially in science and technology fields. Russia and Brazil have targeted programs in some of the above areas, but lack comprehensive long‐term strategies, covering all the above areas and coordinating effort of various agencies and constituencies.

It is recommended to expand the scope of analysis to include other fast growing developing economies (e.g. Mexico, Indonesia, and Turkey).

The article provides, for the first time, a comparison of human capital development indices and strategies of the four largest developing economies. The original feature of the article is a combination of the analysis of macro‐level indices with an in‐depth analysis of policy documents and academic literature.

Previous studies have challenged the Human Development Index’s (HDI) ability to emulate the achievement of falāh (happiness). This paper aims to evaluate the role of religious values in establishing a positive link between the current measurement of development and falāh.

First, this study derives an improved value-loaded development measure from the concept of Maqasid al-Shari’ah (the higher objectives of Islamic law). Second, this paper compares the calculated Maqasid al-Shari’ah Index (MSI) with the HDI of some Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries by using the parametric pair difference z-test and t-test along with the non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Finally, the relationship of both indices and the proxy of falāh are examined by using the ordinary least square and the generalised method of moments estimations.

As far as the religious-led development is concerned, the HDI underestimates OIC countries’ development progress. Here, the MSI can better embody the attainment of falāh than the HDI.

This study only covers limited OIC countries due to the data availability issue.

The cultural-based development stemming from the religious values proves useful for putting the government effort towards the attainment of the objective of human well-being in the right direction.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study examining the empirical relationship between the MSI and falāh.