Benchmarking Sustainable Development: A Synthetic Meta-index Approach

Laurens Cherchye and Timo Kuosmanen

No RP2004-28, WIDER Working Paper Series from World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER)

Abstract: The need for monitoring countries' overall performance in sustainable development (SD) is widely recognized, but the methods for aggregating vast amounts of empirical data remain rather crude. This paper examines the so-called 'benefit of doubt' weighting method as a tool for identifying benchmarks without imposing strong normative judgment about SD priorities. The weighting method involves linear optimization techniques, and allows countries to emphasize and prioritize those SD aspects for which they perform relatively well.

Keywords: Comparative economics; Index numbers (Economics); Mathematical optimization; Sustainable development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (24)

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Working Paper: Benchmarking Sustainable Development: A Synthetic Meta-index Approach (2002)
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