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Globalization and Human Developmentnot make a lot of progress in terms of percapita income but succeeded in improvingthe quality of life for its citizens (e.g. SriLanka). The question is whetherglobalization is necessarily associated withsuch improvements.In principle, the answer to this question isunclear. On the one hand, it could be arguedthat globalization improves the quality oflife because it exposes the population of theworld to living conditions across nations.As a result, it increases the pressure ongovernments to allocate public investmentto improve health, education and theenvironment. At the same time, globalizationfacilitates the process of acquiring the latestinnovations that have bearing on the qualityof life. On the other hand, thecounter-argument is that globalizationencourages conspicuous consumption ofgoods and services that cannot be affordedby the poorer consumers in developingcountries. It also leads to greatercompetition from imports, which causesdislocation and unemployment, at least inthe short run. Furthermore, it encouragesthe migration of polluting industries fromdeveloped to developing countries, tobenefit from less restrictive environmentalregulations and weak enforcement.20000150001000050000Figure 1.7 : Per Capita GDP(1990 purchasing-power-parity dollars)Low income quartileMiddle incomeMiddle high incomeHigh income1900 2000Figure 1.8 : The Relation Beteen Inequality and GrowthGiven these divergent arguments, the issuebecomes once again an inquiry into theresults of empirical investigations regardingthe link between globalization and qualityof life. But this is a difficult task. Measuringchanges in quality of life over time is noteasy. Nor are attempts to relate this changeto globalization.Data show that the human development gapbetween poor and rich nations has declinedover time. But the data also reveal thatprogress has been uneven across regions. Inthe developed world, North America andWestern Europe, as expected, enjoy a HDIabove the cut off point of 0.8 for thecategory of high human development. In thedeveloping world, only Latin America andEast Asia (excluding China) fit thiscategory. At the other end of the scale,South Asia and Africa lag behind, with aHDI below the low development cut offpoint of 0.5.Egypt Human Development Report 2000/2001 - 19