This seems like a well thought out measure for development that considers life expectancy, education, and income. It adjusts each of these factors for inequality by the geometric mean of the factor across the population. [1]
This is similar to assigning a logarithmic utility to income, life, and education and estimating the loss from inequality by looking at the difference between the computed utility and what one would get if income, life expectancy, and education were constant across the population.
I once did a calculation like this for income over the last century, and noticed that although inflation-adjusted mean incomes have risen since the 1970s, once inequality is accounted for, that rise disappears.
This is similar to assigning a logarithmic utility to income, life, and education and estimating the loss from inequality by looking at the difference between the computed utility and what one would get if income, life expectancy, and education were constant across the population.
I once did a calculation like this for income over the last century, and noticed that although inflation-adjusted mean incomes have risen since the 1970s, once inequality is accounted for, that rise disappears.
[1] http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2010/papers/HDRP_20...