Niveles de vida, salud y educación en perspectiva histórica

Abstract

This research introduces new indicators of human development for Portugal and compares its evolution with that of others available for Spain. For that it constructed historical series of living standards, health and education for Portugal, and with this information calculated a Hybrid Human Development Index, since the beginning of the twentieth century. The method used is based on the capability approach, primarily delineated by Amartya Sen, and on the contributions made by economic historiography in recent years regarding two matters: on the one hand, the limitations of only using economic indicators to assess human development, on the other, the larger analytical possibilities if new dimensions of the process (education, health. . . ), and new synthetic indices clearly defined are considered. The thesis is divided into seven chapters, plus an introduction and a conclusion. In the first chapter we discuss the concepts of wellbeing, economic growth and human development, we make a brief introduction to the concept of human development and a critical analysis to the methodology used, as proposed by different authors. We also highlight the possibilities of using such methodology as a tool to analyze the evolution of human wellbeing in the past and improve it. In the second chapter we discuss the sources and present the methodology used in this research (the hybrid Human Development Index). In the third chapter we present the results obtained for Portugal's HHDI using different methods of analysis. In chapters fourth, fifth and sixth, we discuss the evolution of the different Index's indicators. In chapter seven, taking into account previous works, we compare the historical evolution of Spain's and Portugal's human development levels. In the conclusions we summarize the overall results.

Date of Award	2 Dec 2016
Original language	Spanish
Supervisor	Josep Pujol Andreu (Tutor) & Claudio Emanuele Felice (Director)