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Sustainable Development in Europe: A Multicriteria Decision Analysis

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  • Giuliano Resce
  • Fritz Schiltz

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel approach to evaluate European countries on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by means of Hierarchical Stochastic Multicriteria Acceptability Analysis (HSMAA). HSMAA produces rankings with Monte Carlo generation of weights, overcoming the need to choose one specific set of weights. The main contribution of this paper lies in the possibility of quantifying the probability by which each country receives a given ranking. Furthermore, HSMAA allows to take into account the hierarchical nature of SDG measurement given that each of the 17 Goals also consists of several indicators. Our results show that Denmark outperforms other European countries, while lower levels of performance are observed in Romania and Bulgaria. In between bottom and top performers, we also find that many countries’ rankings vary widely by the chosen set of weights, exemplifying the need to rank countries based on multiple weightings and to quantify the probabilities of each ranking.

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  • Giuliano Resce & Fritz Schiltz, 2021. "Sustainable Development in Europe: A Multicriteria Decision Analysis," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 67(2), pages 509-529, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:revinw:v:67:y:2021:i:2:p:509-529
    DOI: 10.1111/roiw.12475
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    2. Idiano D’Adamo & Massimo Gastaldi, 2022. "Sustainable Development Goals: A Regional Overview Based on Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-15, August.
    3. Denise Anselmi & Idiano D’Adamo & Massimo Gastaldi & Ginevra Virginia Lombardi, 2024. "A comparison of economic, environmental and social performance of European countries: a sustainable development goal index," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(8), pages 20653-20677, August.
    4. Peterson K. Ozili, 2022. "Sustainability and Sustainable Development Research around the World," Managing Global Transitions, University of Primorska, Faculty of Management Koper, vol. 20(3 (Fall)), pages 259-293.
    5. Maria-Glòria Barberà-Mariné & Laura Fabregat-Aibar & Valeria Ferreira & Antonio Terceño, 2024. "One Step Away from 2030: An Assessment of the Progress of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the European Union [A un paso de 2030: Una evaluación del progreso de los Objetivos de Desarrollo S," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 36(6), pages 1372-1397, December.
    6. Paolo Liberati & Giuliano Resce, 2022. "Regional Well-Being and its Inequality in the OECD Member Countries," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 20(3), pages 671-700, September.
    7. Paolo Liberati & Giuliano Resce & Francesca Tosi, 2023. "The probability of multidimensional poverty: A new approach and an empirical application to EU‐SILC data," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 69(3), pages 668-700, September.
    8. Manuel Sousa & Maria Fatima Almeida & Rodrigo Calili, 2021. "Multiple Criteria Decision Making for the Achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals: A Systematic Literature Review and a Research Agenda," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-37, April.

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