Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T08:33:15.314Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Whither growth? International development, social indicators, and the politics of measurement, 1920s–1970s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 July 2019

Stephen Macekura
Stephen Macekura*
Affiliation:
Department of International Studies, Indiana University, 355 North Jordan Avenue, Bloomington, IN 47405-1105, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: smacekur@indiana.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Few concepts in the history of twentieth-century history proved as important as economic growth. Scholars such as Charles Maier, Robert Collins, and Timothy Mitchell have analysed how the notion that an entity called ‘the economy’ (defined by metrics such as Gross National Product, or GNP) could be made to grow came to define economic thought and policy worldwide. Yet there has been far less attention paid to the fact that neither growth nor GNP went without challenge during their emergence and global diffusion. This article focuses on one set of growth critics: those who advocated for ‘social indicators’ in international development policy during the 1960s and 1970s. It advances three overlapping arguments: that advocates for social indicators harkened back to early twentieth-century transnational efforts to make workers’ ‘standard of living’ the primary statistical framework for policy-makers; that, while supporters of social indicators expressed frustration with technocratic governance, their reform efforts nevertheless represented technocratic critiques of modernity; and finally, that one of the major reform efforts, Morris David Morris’s advocacy on behalf of the ‘Physical Quality of Life Index’ (PQLI), as an alternative measure of national wellbeing, ultimately struggled to challenge the GNP growth paradigm, and yet proved influential in spawning subsequent research into new measures and approaches to development.

Keywords

economic growthinternational developmentmeasurement of social indicatorstransnational history
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Global History , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , July 2019 , pp. 261 - 279
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

I am grateful for comments, criticisms, and opportunities to present earlier versions of this article from Sarah Milov, Brent Cebul, and the participants in the Movements and Directions in Capitalism Workshop Series at the University of Virginia; Stephen Gross and the participants in New York University’s Economic History Workshop; Felix Römer and the participants in the ‘Global Knowledge of Economic Inequality’ workshop at the German Historical Institute, London; and Nick Cullather, Amanda Waterhouse, and the editors and reviewers of the Journal of Global History.

References

1 Charles, S. Maier, ‘The politics of productivity: foundations of American international economic policy after World War II’, International Organization, 31, 4 1977, pp. 607–33.Google Scholar

2 David, Ekbladh, The great American mission: modernization and the construction of an American world order Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010 Google Scholar; Michael, E. Latham, The right kind of revolution: modernization, development, and U.S. foreign policy from the Cold War to the present, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2011 Google Scholar.

3 Barbara, Ward, Runnalls, J. D., and Lenore, D’Anjou, eds., The widening gap: development in the 1970s, New York: Columbia University Press, 1971 Google Scholar.

4 Nils, Gilman, ‘The new international economic order: a reintroduction’, Humanity, 6, 1, 2015, pp. 1–16 Google Scholar.

5 Michael, Gubser, ‘The presentist bias: ahistoricism, equity, and international development in the 1970s’, Journal of Development Studies, 48, 12, 2012, pp. 1802–5Google Scholar.

6 Dudley, Seers, ‘What are we trying to measure?’, in Nancy, Baster, ed., Measuring development: the role and adequacy of development indicators, London: Frank Cass and Co., Ltd, 1972, p. 22 Google Scholar.

7 Ian, Miles, Social indicators for human development, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985 Google Scholar.

8 GDP is the value of the production within a country, and GNP is that value plus net property income from abroad.

9 Victoria, De Grazia, Irresistible empire: America’s advance through twentieth-century Europe, Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005, pp. 75–129 Google Scholar; Judith, G. Coffin, ‘A “standard” of living? European perspectives on class and consumption in the early twentieth century’, International Labor and Working-Class History, 55, 1999, pp. 6–26 Google Scholar; Patricia, Clavin, Securing the world economy: the reinvention of the League of Nations, 1920–1946, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013, pp. 164–79Google Scholar; Lawrence, Glickman, ‘Inventing the “American standard of living”: gender, race, and working-class identity, 1880–1925’, Labor History, 34, 2, 1993, pp. 221–35Google Scholar.

10 Elizabeth, A. Stanton, ‘Human Development Index: a history’, Working Paper No. 127, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2007, https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1101&context=peri_workingpapers (consulted 19 March 2019).Google Scholar

11 Timothy, Mitchell, ‘Economentality: how the future entered government’, Critical Inquiry, 40, 2014, pp. 479–507 Google Scholar; Adam, Tooze, Statistics and the German state, 1900–1945: the making of modern economic knowledge, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001;Google Scholar Manu, Goswami, Producing India: from colonial economy to national space, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2004;Google Scholar Daniel, Speich Chassé, ‘The use of global abstractions: national income accounting in the period of imperial decline’, Journal of Global History, 6, 1, 2011, pp. 7–28 Google Scholar; Alden, Young, Transforming Sudan: decolonization, economic development, and state formation, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018 Google Scholar.

12 Matthias, Schmelzer, The hegemony of growth: the making and remaking of the economic growth paradigm and the OECD, 1948 to 2010, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016 Google Scholar; McNeill, J. R., Something new under the sun: an environmental history of the twentieth-century world, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2000, p. 336 Google Scholar. See also Robert, Collins, More: the politics of economic growth in postwar America, New York: Oxford University Press, 2000 Google Scholar; Scott, O’Bryan, The growth idea: purpose and prosperity in postwar Japan, Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2009 Google Scholar; Andrew, L. Yarrow, Measuring America: how economic growth came to define American greatness in the late twentieth century, Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2010 Google Scholar.

13 Ehsan, Masood, The great invention: the story of GDP and the making (and unmaking) of the modern world, New York: Pegasus Books, 2016 Google Scholar; Dirk, Philipsen, The little big number: how GDP came to rule the world and what to do about it, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2015 Google Scholar; Joseph, E. Stiglitz, Amartya, Sen, and Jean, Paul Fitoussi, Mismeasuring our lives: why GDP doesn’t add up, New York: The New Press, 2010 Google Scholar; Lorenzo, Fioramonti, Gross domestic problem: the politics behind the world’s most powerful number, London: Zed Books, 2013 Google Scholar; Zachary, Karabell, The leading indicators: a short history of the numbers that rule our world, New York: Simon and Schuster, 2014 Google Scholar; Diane, Coyle, GDP: a brief but affectionate history, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014 Google Scholar; Phillip, Lepenies, The power of a single number: a political history of GDP, trans. Jeremy Gaines, New York: Columbia University Press, 2016 Google Scholar; David, Pilling, The growth delusion: wealth, poverty, and the well-being of nations, New York: Tim Duggan Books, 2018 Google Scholar.

14 Journal of Global History, 6, 1, 2011 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Daniel, Immerwahr, Thinking small: the United States and the lure of community development, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014, for varieties of development approachesGoogle Scholar.

15 Rob, Konkel, ‘The monetization of global poverty: the concept of poverty in World Bank history, 1944–90’, Journal of Global History, 9, 2, 2014, pp. 276–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

16 Morten, Jerven, ‘An unlevel playing field: national income estimates and reciprocal comparison in global economic history’, Journal of Global History, 7, 1, 2012, pp. 107–28Google Scholar; Morten, Jerven, Poor numbers: how we are misled by African development statistics and what to do about it, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2013 Google Scholar.

17 Stephen, Macekura, ‘Development and economic growth: an intellectual history’, in Iris, Borowy and Matthias, Schmelzer, eds., History of the future of economic growth: historical roots of current debates on sustainable degrowth, London: Routledge, 2017, pp. 120–8Google Scholar.

18 James, C. Scott, Seeing like a state: how certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998 Google Scholar.

19 Paul, Studenski, The income of nations: theory, measurement, and analysis: past and present,New York: New York University Press, 1958, pp. 26–141 Google Scholar.

20 Eli, Cook, The pricing of progress: economic indicators and the capitalization of American life’, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013 Google Scholar.

21 Martin, Bulmer, Kevin, Bales, and Kathryn, Kish Sklar, ‘The social survey in historical perspective’, in Martin, Bulmer, Kevin, Bales, and Kathryn, Kish Sklar, eds., The social survey in historical perspective, 1880–1940, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, p. 15 Google Scholar.

22 John, Modell, ‘Patterns of consumption, acculturation, and family income strategies in late nineteenth-century America’, in Tamara, K. Hareven and Maris, A. Vinovskis, eds., Family and population in nineteenth-century America, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1978, p. 207 Google Scholar.

23 Thomas, A. Stapleford, ‘Defining a ‘living wage’ in America: transformations in union wage theories, 1870–1930’, Labor History, 49, 1, 2008, pp. 1–22 Google Scholar.

24 Thomas, A. Stapleford, The cost of living in America: a political history of economic statistics, 1880–2000, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009 Google Scholar; Alice, O’Connor, Poverty knowledge: social science, social policy, and the poor in twentieth-century U.S. history, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001 Google Scholar; Theodore, M. Porter, The rise of statistical thinking, 1820–1920, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986 Google Scholar.

25 De, Grazia, Irresistible empire, pp. 76–7Google Scholar.

26 International Labour Organisation Archives, Geneva, Switzerland (henceforth ILOA), Series T, file no. 101/1/13/1, ‘Summary of an official enquiry on working and living conditions and on the situation of industry in China’; ILOA, Series T, file no. 102/0, ‘Labour statistics’.

27 Leo Wolman, ‘Consumption and the standard of living’, in Committee on Recent Economic Changes of the President’s Conference on Unemployment, Recent economic changes in the United States, volumes 1 and 2, New York: McGraw-Hill for the National Bureau of Economic Research, 1929, p. 13.

28 ILOA, Series T, file no. 101/0/1/0, ‘Notes of a meeting held at the International Labour Office, September 9th, 1929’; ILOA, Series T, file no. 101/0/1, ‘Discussion with Mr. Filene at Amsterdam, July 10–12, 1929’; De Grazia, Irresistible empire, pp. 79–81.

29 Clavin, , Securing the world economy, p. 174 Google Scholar.

30 League of Nations Archives, Geneva, Switzerland, Cotes des Series 1227, Cotes des Cartons 2694, folder ‘Enquete sur le niveau de vie’, Noel Hall, ‘Preliminary investigation into measures of a national or international character for raising the standard of living’, 21 May 1938.

31 Clavin, , Securing the world economy, p. 173 Google Scholar.

32 Amry, Vandenbosch, The Dutch East Indies: its government, problems, and politics, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1941 Google Scholar.

33 Frederick, Cooper, Decolonization and African society: the labor question in French and British Africa, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, p. 111 Google Scholar.

34 Timothy, Mitchell, ‘Economentality’; Macekura, ‘Development and economic growth’, pp. 114–16Google Scholar.

35 Hall, N. F., Preliminary investigation into measures of a national or international character for raising the standard of living, Geneva: League of Nations, 1938, pp. 10, 16, 26.Google Scholar

36 Economic stability in the post-war world, part II: the conditions of prosperity after the transition from war to peace, Geneva: League of Nations, 1945, pp. 20–2Google Scholar.

37 Cooper, , Decolonization and African society, pp. 114–24Google Scholar.

38 The National Archives, Kew, UK, CO 852/503/17, ‘The problem of raising the standard of living in the British colonial empire’, 1942, p. 7 Google Scholar.

39 ILOA, Series T, file no. 200/01, ‘Notes concerning report on measures to improve standards of living’.

40 Charles, Maier, In search of stability: explorations of historical political economy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987, p. 146 Google Scholar; Schmelzer, , Hegemony of growth, pp. 75–162 Google Scholar.

41 Collins, More; Alan, S. Milward, The European rescue of the nation-state, London: Routledge, 2000; O’Bryan, Growth idea.Google Scholar

42 Stephen, Macekura, ‘The point four program and international development policy’, Political Science Quarterly, 128, 1, 2013, pp. 127–60Google Scholar; Speich Chassé, ‘Use of global abstractions’, pp. 22–6.

43 Latham, , Right kind of revolution, pp. 41–2Google Scholar; Alessandro, Iandolo, ‘The rise and fall of the Soviet model of development in West Africa, 1957–1964’, Cold War History, 12, 4, 2012, pp. 683–704 Google Scholar.

44 David, Engerman, ‘Bernath lecture: American knowledge and global power’, Diplomatic History, 31, 4, 2007, p. 619 Google Scholar.

45 Tom, Mboya, ‘African socialism and its application to planning in Kenya’, in The challenge of nationhood: a collection of speeches and writings by Tom Mboya, New York: Praeger Publishers, 1970, p. 103 Google Scholar.

46 Alden, Young, Transforming Sudan: decolonization, economic development, and state formation, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018, p. 16 Google Scholar.

47 Brad, Simpson, ‘Indonesia’s “accelerated modernization” and the global discourse of development’, Diplomatic History, 33, 3, 2009, p. 477 Google Scholar.

48 Daniel, Speich, ‘Travelling with the GDP through early development economics’ history’, Working papers on the nature of evidence: how well do facts travel? no. 33/2008, London School of Economics, Department of Economic History, 2008, p. 32, http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/22501/ (consulted 19 March 2019)Google Scholar.

49 Latham, , Right kind of revolution, pp. 44–58 Google Scholar.

50 Robert, L. Tignor, W. Arthur Lewis and the birth of development economics, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006, pp. 144–78Google Scholar.

51 Singer, H. W., ‘Poverty, income distribution, and levels of living: thirty years of changing thoughts on development problems’, in Hanumantha, C. H. and Joshi, P. C., eds., Reflection on economic development and social change: essays in honour of Professor V.K.R.V. Rao, New Delhi: Allied Publishers Private Ltd., 1979, p. 31 Google Scholar.

52 Moses, Abramovitz, Thinking about growth and other essays on economic growth and welfare, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989, p. 328 Google Scholar.

53 John, Kenneth Galbraith, The affluent society, Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1958 Google Scholar; Vance, O. Packard, The waste makers, London: Longmans, 1960 Google Scholar; David, Riesman, Abundance for what and other essays, London: Chatto, 1964 Google Scholar.

54 Paul, Baran, The political economy of growth, New York: Monthly Review Press, 1957 Google Scholar.

55 Ezra J. Mishan, The costs of economic growth, New York: Staples Press, 1967 Google Scholar; Kenneth, E. Boulding, ‘The economics of the coming spaceship earth’, in Jarrett, H., ed., Environmental quality in a growing economy, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1966, pp. 3–14 Google Scholar.

56 Colin, Clark, Growthmanship: a study in the mythology of investment, London: Institute of Economic Affairs, 1961 Google Scholar; Simon, Kuznets, ‘Economic growth and income inequality’, American Economic Review, 45, 1, 1955, pp. 1–28 Google Scholar; Simon, Kuznets, ‘How to judge quality’, New Republic, 20 October 1962, pp. 29–31 Google Scholar.

57 Stephen, Macekura, Of limits and growth: the rise of global sustainable development in the twentieth century, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp. 91–104 Google Scholar; Samuel, P. Hays, Beauty, health, and permanence: environmental politics in the United States, 1955–1985, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987 Google Scholar.

58 Jacques, Ellul, The technological society, trans. John Wilkinson, New York: Vintage Books, 1964 Google Scholar; Herbert, Marcuse, One-dimensional man: studies in the ideology of advanced industrial society, Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1964 Google Scholar;

59 Dudley, Seers, ‘The role of national income estimates in the statistical policy of an underdeveloped area’, Review of Economic Studies, 20, 3, 1952–3, pp. 159–68Google Scholar; Dudley, Seers, ‘The limitations of the special case’, Bulletin of the Oxford University Institute of Statistics, 25, 2, 1963, p. 80 Google Scholar.

60 Dudley Seers Papers, Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, UK (henceforth Seers papers), box 8Google Scholar, Dudley, Seers, ‘The changing definition and measurement of development’, 26 June 1978 Google Scholar.

61 Seers papers, box 22, Dudley, Seers, ‘The meaning of development’, Institute for Development Studies Communication, 4, 1969, p. 9 Google Scholar.

62 Singer, , ‘Poverty’, p. 31 Google Scholar.

63 Singer, H.W., ‘The notion of human investment’, Review of Social Economy, 24, 1, 1966, p. 4 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

64 Ekbladh, , Great American mission, pp. 220–2Google Scholar Macekura, , Of limits and growth, pp. 150–3Google Scholar.

65 Edgar, Owens and Robert, Shaw, Development reconsidered: bridging the gap between government and people, Washington, DC: Heath, 1972 Google Scholar.

66 Lester, B. Pearson, Partners in development: report of the Commission on International Development, New York: Praeger Publishers, 1969, p. 358 Google Scholar.

67 Ward, Runnalls, and D’Anjou, , Widening gap Google Scholar.

68 Ekbladh, , Great American mission, pp. 246–8Google Scholar.

69 Jillani, M. S. and Masooda, Bano, ‘From “growth” to “growth with a social conscience”: Haq as an economic planner in Pakistan’, in Khadija, Haq and Richard, Ponzio, eds., Pioneering the human development revolution: an intellectual biography of Mahbub ul Haq, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2008, p. 23 Google Scholar.

70 Mahbub, ul Haq, ‘System is to blame for the 22 wealthy families’, The Times (London), 22 March 1973 Google Scholar.

71 Ester, Boserup, Woman’s role in economic development, London: George, Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1970 Google Scholar; Marilyn, Waring, If women counted: a new feminist economics, New York: Harper & Row, 1988 Google Scholar.

72 Patrick, Allan Sharma, Robert McNamara’s other war: the World Bank and international development, Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017 Google Scholar.

73 James, P. Grant, ‘The end of trickle down?’, Foreign Policy, 12, 1973, p. 43 Google Scholar.

74 Employment, incomes, and equality: a strategy for increasing productive employment in Kenya, Geneva: International Labour Office, 1972 Google Scholar.

75 Hollis, Chenery, Montek, S. Ahluwalia, Bell, C. L. G., John, H. Duloy, and Richard, Jolly, eds., Redistribution with growth, New York: Oxford University Press, 1974 Google Scholar.

76 ILOA, WEP file no. 159-227-3-1, Jacket 3, Abbas Ammar to Robert S. McNamara, 12 December 1973; World Bank Group Archives Oral Histories, ‘Transcript of oral history interview with Hollis B. Chenery held on 27 January 1983: main transcript’, http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/174871468331197663/pdf/789630v20TRN0C0iew0January027001983.pdf (consulted 19 March 2019).

77 Paul, Streeten et al., First things first: meeting basic human needs in the developing countries, New York: Oxford University Press, 1981 Google Scholar.

78 United Nations Office at Geneva Registry Collection, Geneva, Switzerland (henceforth UNOGRC), GX 10/2/2/77, box 1946, folder ‘United Nations Research Institute for Social Development’, ‘First progress report’, February 1965; Michael, Ward, Quantifying the world: UN ideas and statistics, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2004, p. 144 Google Scholar.

79 Raymond, A. Bauer, ed., Social indicators, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1966 Google Scholar.

80 Mark, Solovey, ‘Senator Fred Harris’s national social science foundation proposal: reconsidering federal science policy, natural science–social science relations, and American liberalism during the 1960s’, ISIS, 103, 1, 2012, pp. 77–8Google Scholar.

81 John Richard Nicholas Stone papers, King’s College Archive, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK (henceforth Stone papers), envelope 5/7/2Google Scholar, Loftus, P. J. to Richard, Stone, 14 November 1970; Stone papers, envelope 5/7/4, ‘Report of the expert group on welfare-oriented supplements to the national accounts and balances and other measures of levels of living’, UN Statistical Office, 15 April 1976 Google Scholar.

82 Stone papers, envelope 5/7/4, S. Chakravarty, ‘Guidelines for SSDS for developing countries’, 15 February 1975.

83 Norman, Hicks and Paul, Streeten, ‘Indicators of development: the search for a basic needs yardstick’, World Development, 7, 1979, p. 570 Google Scholar.

84 Robert, Parke and David, Seidman, ‘Social indicators and social reporting’, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 435, 1978, pp. 2–3 Google Scholar.

85 Douglas, Rimmer, ‘“Basic needs” and the origins of the development ethos’, Journal of the Developing Areas, 15, 2, 1981, pp. 215–16, 236–7Google Scholar.

86 Jan, Drewnowski, Studies in the measurement of levels of living and welfare, Geneva: United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, 1970 Google Scholar; McGranahan, D. V, Richard-Proust, C., Sovani, N. V., and Subramanian, M., Contents and measurements of socioeconomic development, New York: Praeger Publishers, 1972, p. 138 Google Scholar; UNOGRC, GX 10/2/2/77, box 1946, folder ‘United Nations Research Institute for Social Development’, ‘Programme of work for 1967–1968’, July 1967.

87 Eleanor, Bernert Sheldon and Wilbert, E. Moore, eds., Indicators of social change: concepts and measurements, New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1968 Google Scholar; Jain, S., Size distribution of income: a compilation of data, Washington, DC: World Bank, 1975 Google Scholar; Measuring social well-being: a progress report on the development of social indicators, Paris: OECD, 1976.

88 Morris, David Morris, Measuring the world’s poor: the physical quality of life index, New York: Pergamon Press, 1979, p. 2 Google Scholar.

89 Rolf, H. Sartorius and Vernon, W. Ruttan, ‘The source of the basic human needs mandate’, Journal of Developing Areas, 23, 3, 1989, pp. 332–7Google Scholar.

90 Morris, D. Morris, ‘A physical quality of life index’, Urban Ecology, 3, 1978, p. 225 Google Scholar.

91 ‘A new index on the quality of life’, New York Times, 13 March 1977, p. 125 Google Scholar.

92 Seers papers, box 7, Dudley, Seers, ‘Note on PQLI’; ‘Indexing the path to development’, Los Angeles Times, 4 April 1977, p. C6 Google Scholar; Andrew, Greeley, ‘The quality of life is not a product’, Chicago Tribune, 16 June 1977, p. B4 Google Scholar; Thomas, Harford, ‘Making the connections to overcome poverty’, The Guardian, 20 August 1980, p. 15 Google Scholar.

93 Douglas, Rimmer, ‘Review of Measuring the condition of the world’s poor: the physical quality of life index, by Morris, David Morris’, Journal of the Developing Areas, 17, 2, 1983, pp. 268–9Google Scholar.

94 Charles, Yost, ‘A Third World success story’, Hartford Courant, 13 February 1978, p. 14 Google Scholar.

95 Kamath, M. V., ‘A new yardstick of progress: limitations of gross national product’, Times of India, 1 April 1977, p. 8 Google Scholar.

96 The quality of life concept: a potential new tool for decision-makers, Washington, DC: The Environmental Protection Agency, 1973.

97 Morris, , Measuring the world’s poor, p. 6 Google Scholar.

98 Ghosh, J. K., Maiti, P., Rao, T. J., and Sinha, B. K., ‘Evolution of statistics in India’, International Statistical Review, 67, 1, 1999, pp. 17–19 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

99 Amartya, Sen, ‘Poverty, inequality and unemployment: some conceptual issues in measurement’, in Srinivasan, T. N. and Bardhan, P. K., Poverty and income distribution in India, Calcutta: Statistical Publishing Society, 1974, p. 67 Google Scholar; Srinivas, M. N., ‘Village studies, participant observation and social science research in India’, Economic and Political Weekly, 10, 33/35, 1975, pp. 1387–94Google Scholar Pranab, Bardhan, ed., Conversations between economists and anthropologists: methodological issues in measuring economic change in rural India, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989 Google Scholar; Terence, J. Byres, ed., The Indian economy: major debates since independence, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 81–2Google Scholar.

100 ‘Report on the potential use of the physical quality of life index in the study of the status of women in India’, 21 May 1979, p. 1, https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNAAX800.pdf (consulted 19 March 2019)Google Scholar.

101 Morris, , ‘Physical quality of life index’, p. 233 Google Scholar; David, A. Brodsky and Dani, Rodrik, ‘Indicators of development and data availability: the case of the PQLI’, World Development, 9, 7, 1981, pp. 695–9Google Scholar.

102 Sundaram, K., ‘Review of Measuring the conditions of India’s poor’, Indian Economic Review, 18, 2, 1983, p. 303 Google Scholar.

103 Vidwans, S. M., ‘A critique of Mukherjee’s index of physical quality of life’, Social Indicators Research, 17, 1985, pp. 127–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

104 David, A. Larson and Walton, T. Wilford, ‘The physical quality of life index: a useful social indicator?’, World Development, 7, 6, 1979, p. 584 Google Scholar.

105 Kamath, , ‘New yardstick’, p. 8 Google Scholar.

106 Miles, Social indicators, p. 50 Google Scholar.

107 Morris, David Morris and Michelle, B. McAlpin, Measuring the condition of India’s poor: the physical quality of life index, New Delhi: Promilla & Co., 1982, p. 88 Google Scholar.

108 Morris, , ‘Physical quality of life index’, p. 225 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

109 Miles, Social indicators, pp. 50–4Google Scholar.

110 Thandika, Mkandawire, ‘The new international economic order, basic needs strategies and the future of Africa’, Afrique et Développement, 5, 3, 1980, p. 77 Google Scholar; Gilman, , ‘New international economic order’, p. 4 Google Scholar;

111 Ajit, Singh, ‘The “basic needs” approach to development vs. the new international economic order: the significance of Third World industrialization’, World Development, 7, 6, 1979, p. 586 Google Scholar.

112 Sinha, R., Peter, Pearson, Gopal, Kadekodi, and Mary, Gregory, Income distribution, growth, and basic needs in India, London: Croom Helm, 1979, p. 19 Google Scholar; Johan Galtung, ‘The new international economic order and the basic needs approach’, Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, 4, 4, 1979, pp. 455–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar Mahbub, ul Haq, ‘An international perspective on basic needs’, Finance and Development, 17, 3, 1980, pp. 12–13 Google Scholar Patrick, Sharma, ‘Between North and South: the World Bank and the new international economic order’, Humanity, 6, 1, 2015, pp. 189–200 Google Scholar.

113 Mark, Frankland, ‘An idea to end world poverty’, The Observer, 4 September 1977, p. 6 Google Scholar.

114 Stanton, , ‘Human Development Index’, p. 14Google Scholar.

115 Miles, Social indicators, pp. 114–97Google Scholar Martha, C. Nussbaum and Amartya, Sen, eds., The quality of life, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993 Google Scholar.

116 Macekura, , ‘Development and economic growth’, pp. 121–3Google Scholar.

117 Collins, , More, pp. 166–232 Google Scholar.

118 Schmelzer, , Hegemony of growth, p. 327 Google Scholar.