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I'm familiar with the measures of Gross domestic product (GDP PPP) total, per capita and GDP nominal total and per capita. But I'm not sure if these measures evaluate the economical development of a country since they don't take into account what a country owes, and external debts sometimes get countries into economical crisis when they become unable to pay them. Then I found about net international investment position (NIIP) that is defined as a country's external financial assets and liabilities.

My question is, can this measure be used to evaluate the economical development of a country and if not, are there specific measures which are used to evaluate economical development?

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Your question brakes down into: - Alternatives to measure "economic development": there are several ways to interpret what development is, it can be social, intensity of money flows, or volume of "money flows".

If you look for social development and well-being, the HDI (Human Development Index) is a good start, but there are several others like the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI)

If you look more to assess the level of financial risk that a government or country is exposed to (debt wise) in combination to the wealth generated in that country, you can take as an example what the European union measures for economical stability: a combination of Budget deficit to GDP and debt-to-GDP ratio.

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  • $\begingroup$ But HDI as far as I know also counts people's culture, education, etc. so pour countries can have higher HDI than less pour ones. I dont know if that fits with the idea of purely economical development $\endgroup$
    – Pablo
    Commented Aug 3, 2017 at 10:31
  • $\begingroup$ I believe you are mixing economic growth with economic development. Please read more here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_development $\endgroup$
    – JoaoBotelho
    Commented Aug 4, 2017 at 13:46
  • $\begingroup$ Hmm if economical development can mean increasing the quality of life of people, but including doing so in a not sustainable way (ie borrowing money you later wont be able to pay and that will lead you into an economical crisis) then I think it has little meaning. But I'm not sure it means that, does it? $\endgroup$
    – Pablo
    Commented Aug 4, 2017 at 13:54
  • $\begingroup$ In Wikipedia it stated "Economic development is the process by which a nation improves the economic, political, and social well-being of its people." This didn't mention any of the risks associated with excessive debt that you are mentioning. Again, it is a process, and indicators exist to measure several aspects of it. It would help if you can try to describe exactly what you want to measure, and to define the concepts you use (such as economic development). $\endgroup$
    – JoaoBotelho
    Commented Aug 6, 2017 at 7:21

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