This paper assesses the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Index (HDI) positively as a starting point for determining the relative degree of development of a country in the framework of the most stringent modern concept of human development. However, it is a synthetic indicator and as such suffers from limitations in terms of reflecting how the people of a country effectively participate in the average progress achieved and in terms of the prospects for future development. Empirical evidence confirms that the HDI needs to be supplemented by other indicators associated with economic and social cohesion, sound development strategies, and sustainability in growth models. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

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The essential objective of this article is to measure and interpret the degree of convergence of social protection benefits in European Union member states as the process of European integration has progressed. In this sense, the article analyses the potential role of per capita income and of the socio‐demographic characteristics of the population as explanatory variables for the levels of social protection provision in European countries. The empirical study focuses on the period from 1985 to 1999, and investigates whether differences in welfare provision levels decreased as European integration progressed, in line with the convergence in economic and socio‐demographic variables between member states.

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This article centers on the potential attractiveness of central and east European countries' (CEEC) economies for industrial groups given their comparative economic and institutional characteristics. The authors focus on the possibility that cars and components production may be relocated from plants currently operating in Spain to plants in new member states of the CEEC and that new investments under corporate internationalization strategies may go to those countries seeking to take advantage of the benefits inherent in setting up in states such as Slovenia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. The authors look at the key variables for decision making and compare the theoretical probabilities with assessments drawn up by firms themselves concerning location factors on the basis of information gathered during field work.