International inequality in well-being

This paper examines inter‐country inequality in indicators of human well‐being. It is primarily concerned with inequality in two gender‐related, composite indicators of development levels proposed: the Gender‐related Development Index (GDI) and the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM). A number of inequality indices are calculated using data for the period 1992 to 1998. A special interest of the paper is whether the GDI and GEM tell different stories with respect to inequality than the Human Development Index (HDI) and PPP GDP per capita. Results indicate that the answer to this question with respect to PPP GDP per capita is a qualified yes, being dependent on how this variable is measured. Other results indicate that the GEM and GDI exhibit slightly higher inequality than the HDI. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.