Modified Human Development and Sustainability of Economic Growth: A Comparative Study of Selected Developed and Developing Countries

This paper investigates the effect of modified human development on sustainability of economic growth for the period of 1980 to 2008 in developed and developing countries by using a system of simultaneous equations. Results of the estimations using a 3SLS method indicate that modified human development index has a positive effect on economic growth in the three groups of countries: the coefficient for high per capita income countries is 12.4; in countries with average per capita income it is 5.2; and it is 5.8 for countries with low per capita income. In other words, the effect of modified human development index on economic growth in developed countries is tow times higher than of developing countries. For the non-sustainability, results indicate that there is an inverse N relationship between non-sustainability and modified human development index in high per capita income countries; but for countries with average and low per capita income, there is a simple N shape relationship.