Quality of life convergence across Spanish regions: a reference to Andalusia

Evaluations of regional welfare conventionally rely on GDP per person as an indicator of wellbeing. This paper attempts to re-address the regional welfare issue using alternative indicators to capita income. With this aim, a database for the Spanish regions (NUTS II) from 1980 to 2001 has been constructed and an augmented version of the Human Development Index (AHDI) has been estimated incorporating indicators of health, education and per capita income. The results show that, whereas regional capita income disparities have practically remained constant, regional convergence in AHDI was achieved in the period.