EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Benchmarking Sustainable Development: A Synthetic Meta-index Approach

Laurens Cherchye and & Timo Kuosmanen
Additional contact information
& Timo Kuosmanen: Wageningen University, The Netherlands

Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Timo Kuosmanen

Others from University Library of Munich, Germany

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-the-doubt’ weighting method as a tool for identifying benchmarks without imposing strong normative judgement 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. Using this method, we construct a meta-index of SD (MISD), which combines 14 existing aggregate SD indices (developed by well-established organizations and/or expert teams) into a single synthesizing overall SD index. Within a sample of 154 countries, our index identifies 6 benchmark countries (3 high-income countries and 3 upper-middle-income countries), but also a number of seriously under-performing countries. We view this approach as a first step towards more systematic international comparisons, aimed at facilitating diffusion of the best practices and policies from the benchmark countries to the less developed world.

Keywords: Sustainable Development; Integrated Assessment; Benchmarking; benefit of the doubt weighting; Data Envelopment Analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C43 C61 O57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002-10-08, Revised 2002-12-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-mic
Note: Type of Document -
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

Downloads: (external link)
https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de/econ-wp/othr/papers/0210/0210001.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Benchmarking Sustainable Development: A Synthetic Meta-index Approach (2004) Downloads
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wpa:wuwpot:0210001

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Others from University Library of Munich, Germany
Bibliographic data for series maintained by EconWPA ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).

 
Page updated 2025-03-22
Handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwpot:0210001