Weights in multidimensional indices of well-being: an overview

Koen Decancq and Maria Ana Lugo

Working Papers of Department of Economics, Leuven from KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Economics, Leuven

Abstract: Multidimensional indices are becoming increasingly important instruments to assess the well-being of societies. They move beyond the focus on a single indicator and yet, are easy to present and communicate. A crucial step in the construction of a multidimensional index of well-being is the selection of the relative weights for the different dimensions. The aim of this paper is to study the role of these weights and to critically survey eight different approaches to set them. We categorize the approaches in three classes: data-driven, normative and hybrid weighting, and compare their respective advantages and drawbacks.

Keywords: composite indicator; multidimensional well-being index; weights. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C43 I31 O1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ltv
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (44)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Weights in Multidimensional Indices of Wellbeing: An Overview (2013)
Working Paper: Weights in multidimensional indices of wellbeing: an overview (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ete:ceswps:ces10.06

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