| Abstract: | The lack of correspondence between traditional economic development measures, such as GNP per capita, and human welfare measures, such as the PQLI, has been well documented in the literature. We devised and analyzed an economic development-welfare disparity measure, and found considerable geographic variability, with actual levels of human welfare much less than expected in many Middle Eastern and African countries, given the level of economic development. Exploratory correlation and regression analysis revealed that inequalities in the distribution of economic power and governmental expenditures contributed to the geographic variability. More importantly, each region improved its standing on the development-welfare disparity measure when relevant factors were controlled via multivariate regression. |
