Convergence of Life Expectancy, a Component of Human Development Index, from the Perspective of Different Income Groups

OpenAlex İngilizce

The argument that health indicators, which are one of the three equally weighted elements of the Human Development Index, have ceased to be an indicator of development was examined for the period between 1972 and 2020. In the first stage of the study, the evolution of life expectancy was examined descriptively in the context of the classification of the world's countries as high-income, middle-income (upper and lower middle) and low-income. If the average life expectancy in each group is taken as 100 in 1972, it can be seen that life expectancy has increased most in low-income countries (140.9), followed by middle-income (128.6) and high-income countries (112.8). In addition, this situation was analyzed using unit root tests. The series obtained by relating the average life value of the high-, middle-, and low-income groups to Japan, which represents the highest life value, are stationary at the level. Therefore, it is noteworthy that the development gap between countries in the world in terms of income is gradually deepening, giving rise to a divergence mechanism, while the development gap in terms of average life is gradually narrowing, that is, the existence of convergence in terms of average life. In the convergence of health, both humanistic motives and individual motives (the realization that if all humanity is not saved, as in the last pandemic, no one's salvation will be possible) have been effective.