By Paul Andrew Bourne, M.Sc. (pending), B.Sc. (Hons), Dip. Edu.
INTRODUCTION
Development today has taken on a new sphere in that in earlier time, it were viewed as an economic situation but today, academic development has taken on a much stronger view concerning social research.
In the early 1980s, there was a marked difference between social research and theories according to Booth (1994). He saw where critical world issues were not being dealt with and was leaving “skeptics” to wonder about the relevance of academics development studies. However, in this paper, the critical development issues discussed will be base on the views of Booth. In order to give a more comprehensive view in terms of research proposal, Jamaica will be using as reference to highlight health facilities and how these facilities improved or worsened as the population develops. During the 1970s, health facilities were greatly improved and as a result, the Infant Mortality Rate decreased from 32.5 per cent prior to 1970 to 11.3 per cent in 1980.
According to Social and Economic Survey of Living Condition, Jamaica had the second lowest infant mortality rate and the second highest life expectancy of the six countries studied.
Professor Rex Nettleford quotes that “Jamaica’s infant mortality and life expectancy levels have improved steadily to the point where the country’s health indicators are considerably above the third world norm moderately better than that for middle income countries and slightly below industrialized countries. In the case of infant mortality improvement, the arte of exchange in Jamaica matches that achieved in the United States of America over the 1938 to 1980 period and is considerably above that achieved in most middle income developing countries. Much of this is due to increased spending on health services as overall public spending increased.”
Professor Nettleford states that the health indicators have improved since 1938 and that the social position of Jamaicans has significantly improved. This he says is because of spending on health care services.
When individuals are malnourished, the health of these individuals would affect them in terms of their physical and mental states. A medical practitioner, Dalzell-Ward (1974: 23) commented, “The deprivation of energy foods’ will result in excessive fatigue which will in turn diminish social and work performances and interfere with well-being.” There is however, the indication of a level of development, where as if an individual is not in the best of health, this will contribute to fewer hours worked and reduced production. The economist Adam states that this would be an indication of reduced economic growth. Professor Todaro from his perspective, development envelopes social, political and economic changes in peoples lives. Another medical practitioner concurred with Dalzell –Ward (1974) when she said:
“In fact many of today’s problems with students are actually health related. Kids are not able to learn sufficiently if they are hungry, tired, hung-over form alcohol, or worried about violence. We need to eliminate barriers that affect students’ readiness to learn. A variety of physical and mental conditions impact students’ attendance and their ability to pay attention in class anger, and restrain from self-destructive impulses.”
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The determinants of development and their influence on peoples’ quality of life were examine by Adam Smith and along with others from classical school saw development from an economic point of view. They argued that development is primarily a function of economic point of view. They argued that development is primarily a function of economic growth.
Sustainable development was defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Development in this context refers to societal as well as economic development. Sustainable development encompasses human welfare, economic growth, stability, environmental protection, and conservation. It seeks to meet the needs of the present while conserving resources for future generations.
Economists see economic growth as the creation to build the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) within a specified time, usually twelve months. From that perspective, therefore development is the transformation of the foundation within an economy. In other words, the transformation of any modern society has its own record as to its achievement and utilizing well its limits resources from economic growth.
Classical theorists had the tendency to show a linkage towards conventional economic theory and “development” with growth and industrialization. Latin American however, perceived this idea, Asian and African countries as “underdeveloped countries.” It is worthwhile to remember Professor Todaro’s position on development that focuses on improvement in the quality of life of individuals through social, political and economic means.
SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
It is quite a challenging issue when it comes to developmental issues. Many third world countries, those of Latin America and the Caribbean of which Jamaica is a part suffer from issues of development, poor health facilities, bad living conditions and infrastructural problems. Hag analytical argument is the focus on this paper. Despite Hag’s writings and analyses, the World Bank Report on World Development have shown that central government expenditures on health and education have declined in low developing countries. This was evident in the period 1980- 83 and 1985- 86. Could the question be asked then what are the main reasons for the poverty that surrounds third world peoples in particular?
The analytical arguments by Hag et al (1987) will set the pace by which theorists will seek to understand a relationship among public expenditure on health and education and its impact on human development using secondary data from the data set (Nations).
MAIN OBJECTIVE
To examine the casual relationship between the expenditure on social programmes and the levels of development.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
To determine the casual relationship between public expenditures on educational and the levels of development.
HYPOTHESES
There is a direct relationship between expenditure on social programmes and level of development. There is no relationship between expenditure on social programmes and level of development.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Development economics is the study of how human economic circumstances change overtime and how they can also be made to change (Hogendorn, 1987: 1, pp. 1). This perspective by Hogendorn supports the traditionalist that development is primarily economic and that growth is the primary contribution towards development. Again the classical writers view development as the country’s ability to move forward in terms of building on certain assets it already has and to strengthen the capabilities it possessed.
Again, development forces us to view critically the environments position especially on issues of pollution, deforestation and depletion of the Ozone layer and the emission of dangerous green house gases. Agenda 21 paragraph 27 states that poverty eradication should be an overriding theme for the coming years. Poverty could endanger the social fabric, undermine economic development and threaten political stability in many developing countries. However, the researcher believes that there cannot be a total eradication of poverty, but instead, the efforts of the world organization such as the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) and the United Nations could drastically minimize poverty.
There are arguments by advocates who believe that economic development should be emphasized more than sustainable development. The focus presently encompasses social, economic and political factors along with the ‘push’ for the human factor and the quality of life. Prominent sociologist agree that the church, school and peer group influence socialization and political institutions especially those which embrace modernized education systems will certainly enhance or embrace human and social capital ( Harlambus etal 1996).
An educated nation is indeed a healthy one. Against this background, CARICOM has undertaken public education to raise the awareness to sustainable development. They have been a commitment to support educational awareness on sustainable development. CARICOM is also committed to provide specific training and educational activities including technical exchange programmes.
Spikes (2002) posits: “poverty can be regarded as the inability to obtain the essentials of life; for others it is a matter of low income; for others a problem of social inequality”. He goes on to say that “poverty can be explained in terms of material conditions, that is basic needs, food, clothing,and shelter; however limited resource interfere with the ability to acquire the essentials. Poverty can be seen as exclusion; the European Union defines the poor as persons whose resources (material culture and social) are so limited as to exclude them from the minimum acceptable way of life in the member state in which they live depending on benefits as equivalents as claiming social assistance”.
It is frightening to say the least that despite efforts within the technological age people living abject poverty that retards the process in which many of these issues should have been addressed. Haralambus (1995)”poverty implies an undesirable social problem that a solution should be found. Basic amenities, for examples, shelter health and nutrition: the latter according to Drewnowski and Scott in Haralambus “is measured by factors in relation to the amount of calories and protein consumed by the individual. Shelter is measured by the quality of living arrangements (dwelling etc.) and health is measured by factors such as infant mortality and the quality of medical treatments available.
Finally, development, whether economic or sustainable is a continuing process. The success, which is noticeable, depends on the assistance given to developing countries by the developed counties and the ability of the developing counties the said resources.
METHODOLOGY
CONCEPTUALIZATION
EXPENDITURE on HEALTH
WHO defines health as the “state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing of an individual?” The document goes on to show that it not merely the absence of disease and infirmity; rather it is a state of being.
EXPENDITURE on EDUCATION
Education can be defined as a combination of activities aimed at imparting instruction to another through instruction, teaching, and pedagogy and in activities. In this paper, emphasis will be placed primarily on pedagogy
LEVELS OF DEVELOPMENT
In this study, the Human Development Index (HDI) will be the primary variable. The HDI measures human development in three dimensions. Life expectancy at birth looks to the health related development; while knowledge measures by the adult literacy rate deals with the educational aspect. The standard of living of the country looks to the economic development of the country.
“Development has been treated by economists as if it were nothing more than an exercise in applied economics, unrelated to political ideas, forms of government, and the role of people in society. It is high time we combine political and economic theory to consider not just ways in which societies can become more productive but the quality of the societies which are supposed to become more productive-the development of people rather than the development of things” (Professor of Development Economics: Michael P. Todaro, 2000).
This paper seeks to follow in the steps of Todaro and examine development as the degree of change in the political system, forms of governance, economic development and quality of life of people in a society.
QUALITY OF LIFE OF PEOPLE
Quality of life is the most fleeting of the terms used in the paper. Not a quantitative variable by any standard, this reflects the emotive side to development that is so often left out of the equation. This is to keep in mind that it is people who live in the space.
OPERATIONALIZATION
EXPENDITURE on HEALTH
Used in the research, this variable is to be measured based on the sum of expenditure public expenditure on health (see Nations Data Set, pubhealth). The level of measurement of this variable is ratio as it is a percent of the Gross National Product.
EXPENDITURE on EDUCATION
This item is to be measured as public expenditure on education (see Nations Data Set, pubeduca). The level of measurement of this variable is ratio as it is a percent of the Gross National Product
LEVELS OF DEVELOPMENT
In this study, the Human Development Index (HDI) will be the primary variable. The HDI measures human development in three dimensions. Life expectancy at birth looks to the health related development; while knowledge measures by the adult literacy rate deals with the educational aspect. The standard of living of the country looks to the economic development of the country.
QUALITY OF LIFE
This measure will be tabulated using human development and the physical quality of life index
Population
The Nation Data Set comprises a number of secondary data sources. The final data set was a merged file of related issues on development. The said data set is a compilation of data on 174 countries
ANALYSIS PLAN
The Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze the data. Cross tabulations was be used to ascertain the relationship between the dependent and the independent variables. The method of analyses was Pearson’s correlation testing that determine if any relationship existed between the variables. Contingency coefficient was be used to determine the strength of any relationship that may exist between variables. The level of significance used is alpha=0.05, at the 95 percent confidence level (CI).
Chapter 4
ANALYSES & INTERPRETATION OF FINDINGS
Univariate Analyses
EXPENDITURE on PUBLIC HEALTH - (Total Expenditure on Health as percentage of GNP (HDR 1994))
A random sample of 174 countries provides a pattern of the distribution of money spent on health as percentage of Gross National Product (GNP). Table 1.1 highlights this topic in the population sampled.
Table 1.1, TOTAL EXPENDITURE on PUBLIC HEALTH as percentage of GNP (HRD, 1994)
TOTAL EXPENDITURE on PUBLIC HEALTH as percentage of GNP (HRD, 1994)
Mean 4.6140
Standard deviation 2.1489
Skew ness 0.9860
Minimum 0.8000
Maximum 13.3000
From table 1.1, the data is trending towards normalcy, as the skewed ness is 0.9860 and so is a good statistical measure of this population sampled (see figure 1.2 below). It will therefore be assumed that the data is not skewed. The mean of 4.614 shows that approximately 4.614 per cent of the Gross National Production (GNP) is spent on public health with a standard deviation of 2.1489. Figure1.2
EXPENDITURE on PUBLIC EDUCATION
Table 1.2
PUBLIC EXPENDITURE on PUBLIC EDUCATION as percentage of GNP (HRD, 1994)
Mean 4.5340
Standard deviation 1.9058
Skewness 0.1340
Minimum 0.0000
Maximum 10.600
It can be concluded from the data collected and presented in the table above is that the data is normal and therefore is a good measure of the data the sample population. The mean of 4.534 is an indication that approximately of 4.534 per cent of the Gross National Production (GNP) is spent on public education with a standard deviation of 1.9058.
Figure1.3 HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX
Table 1.3
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX
Mean 2.0700
Standard deviation 0.7820
Skewness -0.1180
Minimum 1.000
Maximum 3.000
The mean of the data 2.07, with a skewedness of -0.118 shows that the data is representative of the population of countries surveyed. Most countries are within the middle development stage with a standard deviation of 0.7820.
Figure 1.4
Bivariate Analyses
Correlations
PUBLIC EXPENDITURE ON EDUCATION AS PERCENTAGE OF GNP (HDR 1994) HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX: 0 = LOWEST HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, 1 = HIGHEST HUMAN DEVELOPMENT (HDR, 1997) 1990: TOTAL EXPENDITURE ON HEALTH AS PERCENTAGE OF GDP (HDR 1994)
PUBLIC EXPENDITURE ON EDUCATION AS PERCENTAGE OF GNP (HDR 1994) Pearson Correlation 1 .413(**) .435(**)
Sig. (2-tailed) . .000 .000
N 115 114 106
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX: 0 = LOWEST HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, 1 = HIGHEST HUMAN DEVELOPMENT (HDR, 1997) Pearson Correlation .413(**) 1 .395(**)
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 . .000
N 114 165 142
1990: TOTAL EXPENDITURE ON HEALTH AS PERCENTAGE OF GDP (HDR 1994) Pearson Correlation .435(**) .395(**) 1
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .
N 106 142 145
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Table 1.4
Bivariate relationship between public expenditure on education and human development
From Table 1.4, the results indicated that there was a statistical relationship between public expenditure on education as a percentage of GNP and levels of human development based on the population sampled. The strength of the relationship is moderate (cc = 0.413 or 41.3 %) and this indicated that there is a positive relationship public expenditure on education as a percentage of GNP and human development.
The coefficient of determination indicates that public expenditure on education as a percentage of GNP explains approximately 17.06 percent of the variation in levels of human development of the population sampled. A significant portion of the countries surveyed (82.94%) is not explained in terms of its expenditure on education.
Bivariate relationship between total expenditure on health and human development
From Table 1.4, the results indicate that there was a statistical relationship between total expenditure on health as a percentage of GDP and levels of human development. The strength of the relationship is moderate which shows that there is a positive relationship total expenditure on health as a percentage of GDP and human development. The coefficient of determination indicates that total expenditure on health as a percentage of GNP explains approximately 15.68 per cent of the proportion of variation in levels of human development of the population sampled. The unexplained variation of 84.32% which indicates that although total expenditure on health explains a particular percent of the variation in development, a significantly larger percent of that variation is not explained by total expenditure on health.
SUMMARY OF TABLES
TABLE 1.5
VARIABLES – COUNT (Pvalue)
Rejected Null Hypotheses:
TOTAL EXPENDITURE ON HEALTH AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 114 (0.000)
PUBLIC EXPENDITURE ON HEALTH AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 142 (0.000)
Chapter 5
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Todaro and other researchers clearly show that development is influenced by social, economic, political factors and quality of governance within a country. In researching, I opted to investigate two social factors; these were selected in recognition of their singular importance in the process of development. The two (2) factors were total expenditure on education as percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and public expenditure on education as percentage of Gross National Product (GNP), and their impact on levels of development. The findings from the Nations Data Set showed that the relationship alluded to by Todaro were in fact present.
The Classicist point of view is of the view that economic factors positively influence development. This was not studied in the paper. The view of the Classicists is not accepted for the purpose of this paper as, if one were to accept the Classicalists viewpoint that development is primary influenced by economic factors then there would be no relationship between socio-political factors and levels of development. This research proves that there is such a relationship.
It has been shown that there is a strong positive relationship between the two social factors and levels of development. This falls in line with Freidman’s perspective that expenditure on education impacts on development. Though only 17.06 per cent of the variation in development is explained by public expenditure, it is enough to add value to Friedman’s perspective that public expenditure on education is strongly related to levels of development.
It can be argued that an increase in the level of public spending on education will significantly influence development of any country. The reverse is true, in if a small portion of a country’s GNP that is expended on education, the lower the level of development of that state. The variations of 82 per cent are more explained by combined other factors as against expenditure on education. It should be reiterated that, public expenditure on education strongly affects levels of development and may be larger than the combined factors disaggregated.
Since this research showed that, there is strong positive relationship between total expenditure on health and levels of development, this concurs with Todaro’s (2000) perspective on development. The Pvalue of 0.000 shows that none of the sampled observation is explained by chance. The finding of this research agrees with Todaro, that development is influenced by social factors to which this research upholds. From a more specific viewpoint, public expenditure on education and the total expenditure on health as social factors based on this research do not by chance explain development but does statistically explain changes in levels of development of a state.
The conclusion therefore is that development is can be explained by social factors, if the results of the findings are taken as reported.
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