IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i2p761-d480315.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evaluating Sustainable Development by Composite Index: Evidence from French Departments

Author

Listed:
  • Jean Bonnet

    (SEGGAT-CREM, Normandy University, 14032 Caen CEDEX, France)

  • Eva Coll-Martínez

    (LEREPS, Sciences Po Toulouse, 31042 Toulouse CEDEX, France)

  • Patricia Renou-Maissant

    (EconomiX, Paris Nanterre University, 92001 Nanterre, France)

Abstract

Since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations, sustainability has been a key priority for European governments. While previous studies have investigated the associations between indicators of sustainable development, few have directly considered a multidimensional approach to assess and compare the performance of regions in terms of sustainable development. As such, a comprehensive assessment of regional sustainable performance is thus still needed. In this paper, the concept of sustainability relies on the construction of six composite indices (environment and natural resources, energy transition, sustainable mobility, economic dynamism, social cohesion and solidarity, and governance and citizenship) with the aim to provide an evaluation framework for empirically comparing the performance of the 96 metropolitan French Departments. Each dimension is explored by spatial autocorrelation analysis and Hierarchical Ascending Classification (HAC) to classify French Departments providing five different regional profiles of sustainable development. The findings make it possible to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the departments in the implementation of sustainable development. This approach provides the bases for a systematic monitoring of sustainable development policies at the regional scale.

Suggested Citation

  • Jean Bonnet & Eva Coll-Martínez & Patricia Renou-Maissant, 2021. "Evaluating Sustainable Development by Composite Index: Evidence from French Departments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-23, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:2:p:761-:d:480315
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/2/761/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/2/761/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fenna Blomsma & Geraldine Brennan, 2017. "The Emergence of Circular Economy: A New Framing Around Prolonging Resource Productivity," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 21(3), pages 603-614, June.
    2. repec:dau:papers:123456789/12045 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Long, Xianling & Ji, Xi, 2019. "Economic Growth Quality, Environmental Sustainability, and Social Welfare in China - Provincial Assessment Based on Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI)," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 157-176.
    4. Batrancea Larissa & Rathnaswamy Malar Maran & Batrancea Ioan & Nichita Anca & Rus Mircea-Iosif & Tulai Horia & Fatacean Gheorghe & Masca Ema Speranta & Morar Ioan Dan, 2020. "Adjusted Net Savings of CEE and Baltic Nations in the Context of Sustainable Economic Growth: A Panel Data Analysis," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-17, October.
    5. Grossman, G.M & Krueger, A.B., 1991. "Environmental Impacts of a North American Free Trade Agreement," Papers 158, Princeton, Woodrow Wilson School - Public and International Affairs.
    6. Bertrand Zuindeau, 2005. "Analyse économique des disparités écologiques spatiales : Une étude à partir des départements français," Revue d'économie régionale et urbaine, Armand Colin, vol. 0(3), pages 331-354.
    7. Alessandro STERLACCHINI, 2006. "Innovation, Knowledge and Regional Economic Performances: Regularities and Differences in the EU," Working Papers 260, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    8. Adrian Boos, 2015. "Genuine Savings as an Indicator for “Weak” Sustainability: Critical Survey and Possible Ways forward in Practical Measuring," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-37, April.
    9. Patricia Renou-Maissant & Rafik Abdessalam & Jean Bonnet, 2018. "Trajectories for energy transition in the countries of the European Union over the period 2000-2015: a multidimensional approach," Economics Working Paper Archive (University of Rennes & University of Caen) 2018-14, Center for Research in Economics and Management (CREM), University of Rennes, University of Caen and CNRS.
    10. Christian de Perthuis & Pierre-André Jouvet, 2013. "Le capital Vert. Une nouvelle perspective de croissance," Post-Print hal-01411452, HAL.
    11. Bertrand Zuindeau, 2005. "Analyse économique des disparités écologiques spatiales : une étude à partir des départements français," Post-Print halshs-00200654, HAL.
    12. Arvin, Mak B. & Pradhan, Rudra P. & Norman, Neville R., 2015. "Transportation intensity, urbanization, economic growth, and CO2 emissions in the G-20 countries," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 50-66.
    13. Hui Jin & Xinyi Qian & Tachia Chin & Hejie Zhang, 2020. "A Global Assessment of Sustainable Development Based on Modification of the Human Development Index via the Entropy Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-20, April.
    14. Camagni, Roberto & Capello, Roberta & Nijkamp, Peter, 1998. "Towards sustainable city policy: an economy-environment technology nexus," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 103-118, January.
    15. Lu Huang, 2018. "Exploring the Strengths and Limits of Strong and Weak Sustainability Indicators: A Case Study of the Assessment of China’s Megacities with EF and GPI," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-14, January.
    16. Boyd, James, 2007. "Nonmarket benefits of nature: What should be counted in green GDP?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(4), pages 716-723, March.
    17. Matteo Mazziotta, Adriano Pareto, 2013. "Methods For Constructing Composite Indices: One For All Or All For One?," RIEDS - Rivista Italiana di Economia, Demografia e Statistica - The Italian Journal of Economic, Demographic and Statistical Studies, SIEDS Societa' Italiana di Economia Demografia e Statistica, vol. 67(2), pages 67-80, April-Jun.
    18. Secundo, Giustina & Ndou, Valentina & Vecchio, Pasquale Del & De Pascale, Gianluigi, 2020. "Sustainable development, intellectual capital and technology policies: A structured literature review and future research agenda," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    19. Miola, Apollonia & Schiltz, Fritz, 2019. "Measuring sustainable development goals performance: How to monitor policy action in the 2030 Agenda implementation?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 1-1.
    20. Adriana AnaMaria Davidescu & Simona Andreea Apostu & Andra Madalina Pantilie & Bogdan Florian Amzuica, 2020. "Romania’s South-Muntenia Region, towards Sustainable Regional Development. Implications for Regional Development Strategies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-46, July.
    21. Patricia Renou-Maissant & Rafik Abdesselam & Ferdaous Roussafi, 2019. "Performances contrastées du développement des énergies renouvelables dans les régions françaises," Post-Print hal-02295993, HAL.
    22. Stefan Dragos Cîrstea & Calin Moldovan-Teselios & Andreea Cîrstea & Antoniu Claudiu Turcu & Cosmin Pompei Darab, 2018. "Evaluating Renewable Energy Sustainability by Composite Index," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-21, March.
    23. Atanu Sengupta & Sanjoy De, 2020. "Review of Literature," India Studies in Business and Economics, in: Assessing Performance of Banks in India Fifty Years After Nationalization, chapter 0, pages 15-30, Springer.
    24. Silvia Megyesiova & Vanda Lieskovska, 2018. "Analysis of the Sustainable Development Indicators in the OECD Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-22, December.
    25. Rafik Abdesselam & Patricia Renou-Maissant & Ferdaous Roussafi, 2019. "Performances contrastées du développement des énergies renouvelables dans les régions françaises," Post-Print halshs-02083153, HAL.
    26. Philip McCann & Daniel Shefer, 2004. "Location, agglomeration and infrastructure," Advances in Spatial Science, in: Raymond J. G. M. Florax & David A. Plane (ed.), Fifty Years of Regional Science, pages 177-196, Springer.
    27. Andrea Saltelli, 2007. "Composite Indicators between Analysis and Advocacy," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 81(1), pages 65-77, March.
    28. Sjoerd Beugelsdijk & Mariko J. Klasing & Petros Milionis, 2018. "Regional economic development in Europe: the role of total factor productivity," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(4), pages 461-476, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lauma Balode & Kristiāna Dolge & Dagnija Blumberga, 2023. "Sector-Specific Pathways to Sustainability: Unravelling the Most Promising Renewable Energy Options," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-24, August.
    2. Eva Coll-Martínez & Malia Kedjar & Patricia Renou-Maissant, 2022. "(Green) Knowledge spillovers and regional environmental support: do they matter for the entry of new green tech-based firms?," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 69(1), pages 119-161, August.
    3. Alan Randall, 2022. "Driving with Eyes on the Rear-View Mirror—Why Weak Sustainability Is Not Enough," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-13, August.
    4. Muhammad Tariq Iqbal Khan & Sofia Anwar & Samuel Asumadu Sarkodie & Muhammad Rizwan Yaseen & Abdul Majeed Nadeem & Qamar Ali, 2023. "Natural disasters, resilience-building, and risk: achieving sustainable cities and human settlements," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 118(1), pages 611-640, August.
    5. Laura Vidal-Hernández & Diana de Yta-Castillo & Blanca Castellanos-Basto & Marco Suárez-Castro & Evelia Rivera-Arriaga, 2021. "Fiscal Economic Instruments for the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources in Coastal Marine Areas of the Yucatan Peninsula," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-20, October.
    6. Chuanjia Du & Chengjun Wang & Tao Feng, 2023. "The Impact of China’s National Sustainable Development Experimental Zone Policy on Energy Transition," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-21, May.
    7. Aniqa Ahmad & Sofia Anwar, 2023. "A Composite Index for Sustainable Development: Measurement and Development Status of Selected Countries," Journal of Economic Impact, Science Impact Publishers, vol. 5(1), pages 1-14.
    8. Juan Diego Araya & Ana Hernando & Rosario Tejera & Javier Velázquez, 2023. "Sustainable Tourism around Ecosystem Services: Application to a Case in Costa Rica Using Multi-Criteria Methods," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-21, March.
    9. Alan Randall, 2021. "Monitoring Sustainability and Targeting Interventions: Indicators, Planetary Boundaries, Benefits and Costs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-19, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jean Bonnet & Eva Coll-Martinez & François Raulin & Patricia Renou-Maissant, 2019. "Typology of sustainable development in Normandy: An appraisal at the intermunicipal level," Economics Working Paper Archive (University of Rennes & University of Caen) 2019-05, Center for Research in Economics and Management (CREM), University of Rennes, University of Caen and CNRS.
    2. Jean Bonnet & Eva Coll-Martinez & Patricia Renou-Maissant, 2019. "Sustainable development. A Comparative Analysis of the Performance of French departments," Economics Working Paper Archive (University of Rennes & University of Caen) 2019-06, Center for Research in Economics and Management (CREM), University of Rennes, University of Caen and CNRS.
    3. Patricia Renou-Maissant & Rafik Abdessalam & Jean Bonnet, 2018. "Trajectories for energy transition in the countries of the European Union over the period 2000-2015: a multidimensional approach," Economics Working Paper Archive (University of Rennes & University of Caen) 2018-14, Center for Research in Economics and Management (CREM), University of Rennes, University of Caen and CNRS.
    4. Anna Martyka & Dorota Jopek & Izabela Skrzypczak, 2022. "Analysis of the Sustainable Development Index in the Communes of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship: A Polish Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-23, August.
    5. Bogdan Ștefanachi & Silviu-Petru Grecu & Horia Costin Chiriac, 2022. "Mapping Sustainability across the World: Signs, Challenges and Opportunities for Democratic Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-28, May.
    6. Maurizio Massaro & Francesca Dal Mas & Charbel Jose Chiappetta Jabbour & Carlo Bagnoli, 2020. "Crypto‐economy and new sustainable business models: Reflections and projections using a case study analysis," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(5), pages 2150-2160, September.
    7. Aleksey I. Shinkevich & Irina G. Ershova & Farida F. Galimulina & Alla A. Yarlychenko, 2021. "Innovative Mesosystems Algorithm for Sustainable Development Priority Areas Identification in Industry Based on Decision Trees Construction," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(23), pages 1-18, November.
    8. Carmen García-Peña & Moneyba González-Medina & Jose Manuel Diaz-Sarachaga, 2021. "Assessment of the Governance Dimension in the Frame of the 2030 Agenda: Evidence from 100 Spanish Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-21, May.
    9. Wafa Alwakid & Sebastian Aparicio & David Urbano, 2021. "The Influence of Green Entrepreneurship on Sustainable Development in Saudi Arabia: The Role of Formal Institutions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-23, May.
    10. Paolo Esposito & Spiridione Lucio Dicorato, 2020. "Sustainable Development, Governance and Performance Measurement in Public Private Partnerships (PPPs): A Methodological Proposal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-25, July.
    11. Abid, Mehdi, 2016. "Impact of economic, financial, and institutional factors on CO2 emissions: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa economies," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 85-94.
    12. Peter M. Bican & Alexander Brem, 2020. "Digital Business Model, Digital Transformation, Digital Entrepreneurship: Is There A Sustainable “Digital”?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-15, June.
    13. Aras, Serkan & Hanifi Van, M., 2022. "An interpretable forecasting framework for energy consumption and CO2 emissions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 328(C).
    14. Yuqing Liao & Yongchao Ma & Jingliang Chen & Ruirui Liu, 2020. "Evaluation of the Level of Sustainable Development of Provinces in China from 2012 to 2018: A Study Based on the Improved Entropy Coefficient-TOPSIS Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-19, March.
    15. Kusi-Sarpong, Simonov & Mubarik, Muhammad Shujaat & Khan, Sharfuddin Ahmed & Brown, Steve & Mubarak, Muhammad Faraz, 2022. "Intellectual capital, blockchain-driven supply chain and sustainable production: Role of supply chain mapping," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    16. Zhang, Qianxiao & Shah, Syed Ale Raza & Yang, Ling, 2022. "An Appreciated Response of Disaggregated Energies Consumption towards the Sustainable Growth: A debate on G-10 Economies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(PA).
    17. Kong, Qunxi & Guo, Rui & Wang, Yang & Sui, Xiuping & Zhou, Shimin, 2020. "Home-country environment and firms’ outward foreign direct investment decision: Evidence from Chinese firms," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 390-399.
    18. Erdogan, Sinan & Fatai Adedoyin, Festus & Victor Bekun, Festus & Asumadu Sarkodie, Samuel, 2020. "Testing the transport-induced environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis: The role of air and railway transport," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    19. Matteo Mazziotta & Adriano Pareto, 2018. "Measuring Well-Being Over Time: The Adjusted Mazziotta–Pareto Index Versus Other Non-compensatory Indices," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 136(3), pages 967-976, April.
    20. Delia-Elena Diaconașu & Ionel Bostan & Cristina Căutișanu & Irina Chiriac, 2022. "Insights into the Sustainable Development of the Bioeconomy at the European Level, in the Context of the Desired Clean Environment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-14, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:2:p:761-:d:480315. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.