Dr. Degye Goshu, Director of Research and Policy Analysis of the EEA made a presentation titled “Measuring the Link between Values and Development: Benchmarking with Global Dynamics” at the E2A conference on July 27, 2023. The research employed World Values Survey dataset for the study covering over 90 countries and over 1500 core variables. The study computed the status of countries based on their level of socioeconomic values index, with the majority of the world having moderate economic values.
Dr. Degye explained that the state of economic values around the world has remained nearly constant over time due to observed factors. According to his finding, the social values around the world have also remained nearly unchanged over time due to unobserved factors. The socioeconomic values of countries may differ from the global average, calling the need to investigate the state of country-specific values. . The study found that there is a strong tradeoff between economic and social values. The study also noted that economic and social values strongly affect development around the world with different implications on development policies to be pursued by each country. He also highlighted that economic values play a pivotal role in realizing multidimensional development of nations, while social values strongly and adversely affect development.
