Factors Affecting the Human Development Index in Southeast Asia

Date Received: Aug 20, 2024

Date Accepted: Jun 11, 2025

Date Published: Jun 28, 2025

Views

10

Download

36

Section:

ECONOMICS, SOCIETY AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT

How to Cite:

Nguyen, A. T. (2025). Factors Affecting the Human Development Index in Southeast Asia. Vietnam Journal of Agricultural Sciences, 8(2), 2554–2564. https://doi.org/10.31817/vjas.2025.8.2.

Factors Affecting the Human Development Index in Southeast Asia

Anh Tru Nguyen (*) 1

  • Corresponding author: [email protected]
  • 1 Faculty of Accounting and Business Management, Vietnam National University of Agriculture, Hanoi 12400, Vietnam
  • Keywords

    Factor, human development index, Southeast Asia

    Abstract


    The aim of this paper was to evaluate the associations between the human development index and economic growth, energy use, trade openness, carbon dioxide emissions, and urbanization in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam between 1991 and 2020 using the fixed effect and random effect models. Due to autocorrelation and heteroscedasticity issues of the fixed effect and random effect models, the feasible generalized least squares model was employed to deal with this problem. The results stated that human development of the five selected Southeast Asian countries may be supported by economic growth and urbanization. However, the relationships between human development and renewable energy consumption, trade openness, and CO2 emissions were insignificant. Finally, policies were recommended to improve the human development index for the region. First, economic growth should be encouraged because it fosters human development. Second, although the urbanization process may improve human development in the region, urbanization should be carefully considered by governments along with creating employment, strengthening education and health quality, and improving living standards for inhabitants. Finally, the nexus between human development and renewable energy consumption, trade openness, and CO2 emissions should be reassessed to carry out appropriate policies for enhancing human development in the region.

    References

    Ansari M. A. (2022). Re-visiting the Environmental Kuznets curve for ASEAN: A comparison between ecological footprint and carbon dioxide emissions. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 168(112867): 1-14. DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2022.112867.

    Arfanuzzaman M. & Dahiya B. (2019). Sustainable urbanization in Southeast Asia and beyond: Challenges of population growth, land use change, and environmental health. Growth and Change. 50(2): 725-744. DOI: 10.1111/grow.12297.

    Arisman A. (2018). Determinant of human development index in ASEAN countries. Signifikan. 7(1): 113-122. DOI: 10.15408/sjie.v7i1.6756.

    ASEAN (2021). ASEAN Key Figures 2021. The ASEAN Secretariat, Jakarta, December 2021.

    Bhowmik D. (2019). Factors of human development index in ASEAN: Panel cointegration analysis. International Journal on Recent Trends in Business and Tourism. 3(1): 8-15.

    Caglayan-Akay E. & Van M. H. (2017). Determinants of the levels of development based on the human development index: Bayesian ordered probit model. International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues. 7(5): 425-431.

    Chontanawat, J. (2019). Driving forces of energy-related CO2 emissions based on expanded IPAT decomposition analysis: evidence from ASEAN and four selected countries. Energies. 12(764): 1-23. DOI: 10.3390/en12040764.

    Dahiya B. (2012). Asian cities in the 21st Century. East Asia Forum, Australian National University.

    Elistia E. & Syahzuni B. A. (2018). The correlation of the human development index (HDI) towards economic growth (GDP per capita) in 10 ASEAN member countries. Journal of Humanities and Social Studies. 2(2): 40-46.

    Eras J. J. C., Fandiño J. M. M., Gutiérrez A. S. & Bayona J. R. (2022). Assessing the causality relationship and time series model for electricity consumption per capita and human development in Colombia. Energy Reports. 8: 10464-10477. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2022.08.183.

    Feriyanto N. (2016). The effect of employment, economic growth, and investment on HDI: In provinces in Indonesia. Journal of Economics, Business & Accountancy Ventura. 19(1): 1-12. DOI: 10.14414/jebav.v19i1.537.

    Gujarati D. N. (2003). Basic Econometrics. Fourth Edition. McGraw-Hill Higher Education. 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY, 10020.

    Hsiao C. (2014). Analysis of panel data. Third Edition. Cambridge University Press, New York.

    IMF (2018). ASEAN progress towards sustainable development goals and the role of the IMF. ASEAN Leaders Gathering. October 11, 2018, Bali, Indonesia.

    Kaewnern H., Wangkumharn S., Deeyaonarn W., Yousaf A. U. & Kongbuamai N. (2023). Investigating the role of research development and renewable energy on human development: An insight from the top ten human development index countries. Energy. 262(125540): 1-10. DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2022.125540.

    Kaukab M. E. & Surwandono S. (2021). Convergence of Human Development Index: case study of foreign direct investment in ASEAN. Business: Theory and Practice. 22(1): 12-17. DOI: 10.3846/btp.2021.12153.

    Ladi T., Mahmoudpour A. & Sharifi A. (2021). Assessing impacts of the water poverty index components on the human development index in Iran. Habitat International. 113(102375): 1-10. DOI: 10.1016/j.habitatint.2021.102375.

    Mofijur M., Mahlia T. M. I., Silitonga A. S., Ong H. C., Silakhori M., Hasan M. H., Putra N. & Rahman S. A. (2019). Phase change materials (PCM) for solar energy usages and storage: An overview. Energies. 12(3167): 1-20. DOI: 10.3390/en12163167.

    Mustafa G., Rizov M. & Kernohan D. (2017). Growth, human development, and trade: The Asian experience. Economic Modelling. 61: 93-101. DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2016.12.007.

    Sadiq M., Wen F., Bashir M. F. & Amin A. (2022). Does nuclear energy consumption contribute to human development? Modeling the effects of public debt and trade globalization in an OECD heterogeneous panel. Journal of Cleaner Production. 375(133965): 1-12. DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.133965.

    Sarkodie S. A. & Adams S. (2020). Electricity access, human development index, governance and income inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa. Energy Reports. 6: 455-466. DOI: 10.1016/j.egyr.2020.02.009.

    Schmidheiny K. (2016). Panel data: Fixed and random effects. Short Guides to Microeconometrics, Fall 2016, Universitat Basel. Retrieved from https://www.schmidheiny.name/teaching/panel2up.pdf on October 15, 2023.

    UNDP (2019). Human Development Report 2019. Inequalities in Human Development in the 21st Century: Viet Nam briefing note. https://vietnam.un.org/en/27780-human-development-report-2019-viet-nam-briefing-note

    UNDP (2023). Human Development Reports. The Human Development Index in Southeast Asia. Retrieved from https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/specific-country-data#/countries/VNM on October 15, 2023.

    Wang Z., Zhang B. & Wang B. (2018). Renewable energy consumption, economic growth and human development index in Pakistan: evidence form simultaneous equation model. Journal of Cleaner Production. 184: 1081-1090. DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.02.260.

    Wooldridge J. M. (2002). Econometric analysis of cross section and panel data. The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England.

    World Bank (2023a). World Development Indicators. CO2 emissions in Southeast Asia. Retrieved from

    https://databank.worldbank.org/reports.aspx?source=2&series=NV.AGR.TOTL.ZS&country=# on November 15, 2023.

    World Bank (2023b). World Development Indicators. GDP per capita of Southeast Asia. Retrieved from https://databank.worldbank.org/reports.aspx?source=2&series=NV.AGR.TOTL.ZS&country=# on November 15, 2023.

    World Bank (2023c). World Development Indicators. Renewable energy consumption in Southeast Asia. Retrieved from https://databank.worldbank.org/reports.aspx?source=2&series=NV.AGR.TOTL.ZS&country=# on November 15, 2023.

    World Bank (2023d). World Development Indicators. Trade openness in Southeast Asia. Retrieved from https://databank.worldbank.org/reports.aspx?source=2&series=NV.AGR.TOTL.ZS&country=# on November 15, 2023.

    World Bank (2023e). World Development Indicators. Urbanization in Southeast Asia. Retrieved from https://databank.worldbank.org/reports.aspx?source=2&series=NV.AGR.TOTL.ZS&country=# on November 15, 2023.

    Zheng J. & Wang X. (2022). Impacts on human development index due to combinations of renewables and ICTs - new evidence from 26 countries. Renewable Energy. 191: 330-344. DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2022.04.033.