ABSTRACT
Economists, right from the days of Adam Smith and even earlier, have always been concerned with the assessment of development of nations, regions and sub-regions. The concept of development has evolved from one based on a uni-dimensional indicator, whether gold for mercantilists or land for the physiocrats in the pre-eighteenth century years, to the present multidimensional understanding of development. The first formal conceptualization of economic development and its drivers appear in Smith where development is synonymous with increases in income. The rank correlations show that human development and security, but not voice and confidence, are highly correlated with the overall ranking. Amartya Sen, one of the architects of the United Nations Development Programme human development index, took the concept forward and introduced the notions of capabilities and freedom as development. The rank correlations between HD and its components indicate that all three components have significant positive correlations with HD implying that HD reflects movements in each of the three components.
