Composite Indices: Rank Robustness, Statistical Association and Redundancy

James Foster (), Mark McGillivray and Suman Seth ()

Working Papers from The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy

Abstract: This paper evaluates the robustness of rankings obtained from composite indices that combine information from two or more components via a weighted sum. It examines the empirical prevalence of robust comparisons using the method proposed by Foster, McGillivray and Seth (2010). Indices examined are the Human Development Index, the Index of Economic Freedom and the Environmental Performance Index. Key theoretical results demonstrate links between the prevalence of robust comparisons, Kendall's tau rank correlation coefficient, and statistical association across components. Implications for redundancy among index components are also examined.

Keywords: composite index; multidimensional index; Human Development Index; rank robustness; positive association; Kendall's tau; redundancy; prevalence function. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C02 I31 O12 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2011-04
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Composite Indices: Rank Robustness, Statistical Association, and Redundancy (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gwi:wpaper:2011-19

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