The Impact of Urbanization on Human Development Index in the Provinces of Iran: Quantile Regression Method

Human development index is based on aspects of human quality in a country. Human development is affected by many variables. One of the main variables is urbanization. On the one hand, urbanization promotes human development by improving the level of income, educational and health services, and on the other hand, with the rapid growth of urbanization, increasing urban congestion, pollution and greenhouse gas emissions negatively affect it. Since rapid and incomplete urbanization has positive and negative effects on the economy, the purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of urbanization on the human development index during the period 1990-2017 with a multiple regression approach. The results show that the effect of urbanization rate on human development index is symmetric, negative and significant, which has become stronger in the upper quantiles. According to other results of this study, health, education and economic growth expenditures have also had a positive effect and CO2 emissions have also had a significant negative impact on the human development index; the pattern of population growth and migration be considered to changing the laws concerning the creation of new cities in order to adapt the urbanization rate to human development in the cities development plan.