IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fem/femwpa/2013.40.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Robust Multidimensional Welfare Comparisons: One Vector of Weights, One Vote

Author

Listed:
  • Stergios Athanassoglou

    (European Commission Joint Research Center, Econometrics and Applied Statistics Unit)

Abstract

Many aspects of social welfare are intrinsically multidimensional. Composite indices at-tempting to reduce this complexity to a unique measure abound in many areas of economics and public policy. Comparisons based on such measures depend, sometimes critically, on how the different dimensions of performance are weighted. Thus, a policy maker may wish to take into account imprecision over composite index weights in a systematic manner. In this paper, such weight imprecision is parameterized via the e-contamination framework of Bayesian statistics. Subsequently, combining results from polyhedral geometry, social choice, and theoretical computer science, an analytical procedure is presented that yields a provably robust ranking of the relevant alternatives in the presence of weight imprecision. The main idea is to consider a vector of weights as a voter and a continuum of weights as an electorate. The procedure is illustrated on recent versions of the Rule of Law and Human Development indices.

Suggested Citation

  • Stergios Athanassoglou, 2013. "Robust Multidimensional Welfare Comparisons: One Vector of Weights, One Vote," Working Papers 2013.40, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    • Handle: RePEc:fem:femwpa:2013.40
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://feem-media.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/NDL2013-040.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mehmet Pinar & Thanasis Stengos & Nikolas Topaloglou, 2013. "Measuring human development: a stochastic dominance approach," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 69-108, March.
    2. James Foster & Mark McGillivray & Suman Seth, 2009. "Rank Robustness of Composite Indices," OPHI Working Papers 26, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    3. Anke van Zuylen & David P. Williamson, 2009. "Deterministic Pivoting Algorithms for Constrained Ranking and Clustering Problems," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 34(3), pages 594-620, August.
    4. Anderson, Gordon & Crawford, Ian & Leicester, Andrew, 2011. "Welfare rankings from multivariate data, a nonparametric approach," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(3), pages 247-252.
    5. James E. Foster & Mark McGillivray & Suman Seth, 2013. "Composite Indices: Rank Robustness, Statistical Association, and Redundancy," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(1), pages 35-56, January.
    6. Giuseppe Munda & Michela Nardo, 2009. "Noncompensatory/nonlinear composite indicators for ranking countries: a defensible setting," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(12), pages 1513-1523.
    7. Iñaki Permanyer, 2011. "Assessing The Robustness Of Composite Indices Rankings," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 57(2), pages 306-326, June.
    8. ,, 2009. "Choice deferral and ambiguity aversion," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 4(2), June.
    9. M. Saisana & A. Saltelli & S. Tarantola, 2005. "Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis techniques as tools for the quality assessment of composite indicators," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 168(2), pages 307-323, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Stergios Athanassoglou, 2015. "Multidimensional welfare rankings under weight imprecision: a social choice perspective," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 44(4), pages 719-744, April.
    2. Athanassoglou, Stergios, 2013. "Multidimensional welfare rankings," MPRA Paper 51642, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Milica Maricic & Jose A. Egea & Veljko Jeremic, 2019. "A Hybrid Enhanced Scatter Search—Composite I-Distance Indicator (eSS-CIDI) Optimization Approach for Determining Weights Within Composite Indicators," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 144(2), pages 497-537, July.
    4. Suman Seth & Mark McGillivray, 2018. "Composite indices, alternative weights, and comparison robustness," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 51(4), pages 657-679, December.
    5. Mehmet Pinar, 2019. "Multidimensional Well-Being and Inequality Across the European Regions with Alternative Interactions Between the Well-Being Dimensions," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 144(1), pages 31-72, July.
    6. Mehmet Pinar & Thanasis Stengos & Nikolas Topaloglou, 2022. "Stochastic dominance spanning and augmenting the human development index with institutional quality," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 315(1), pages 341-369, August.
    7. James Foster & Mark McGillivray & Suman Seth, 2012. "Rank Robustness of Composite Indices: Dominance and Ambiguity," OPHI Working Papers 26b, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    8. Salvatore Greco & Alessio Ishizaka & Menelaos Tasiou & Gianpiero Torrisi, 2019. "On the Methodological Framework of Composite Indices: A Review of the Issues of Weighting, Aggregation, and Robustness," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 141(1), pages 61-94, January.
    9. Giuseppe Coco & Raffaele Lagravinese & Giuliano Resce, 2020. "Beyond the weights: a multicriteria approach to evaluate inequality in education," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 18(4), pages 469-489, December.
    10. Burhan Can Karahasan & Fırat Bilgel, 2021. "The Topography and Sources of Multidimensional Poverty in Turkey," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 154(2), pages 413-445, April.
    11. Suman Seth & Mark McGillivray, 2018. "Composite indices, alternative weights, and comparison robustness," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 51(4), pages 657-679, December.
    12. Cantone, Giulio Giacomo & Tomaselli, Venera, 2024. "On the Coherence of Composite Indexes: Multiversal Model and Specification Analysis for an Index of Well-Being," MetaArXiv d5y26, Center for Open Science.
    13. Zheng, Buhong & Zheng, Charles, 2015. "Fuzzy ranking of human development: A proposal," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 39-47.
    14. Greco, Salvatore & Ishizaka, Alessio & Resce, Giuliano & Torrisi, Gianpiero, 2017. "Is the Grass Always Greener on the Other Side of the fence? Composite Index of Well-Being Taking into Account the Local Relative Appreciations in Better Life Index," MPRA Paper 82718, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Lucio Esposito & Enrica Chiappero‐Martinetti, 2019. "Eliciting, Applying And Exploring Multidimensional Welfare Weights: Evidence From The Field," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 65(S1), pages 204-227, November.
    16. Permanyer, Iñaki, 2014. "Assessing individuals' deprivation in a multidimensional framework," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 1-16.
    17. Meital Izraelov & Jacques Silber, 2019. "An assessment of the global food security index," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 11(5), pages 1135-1152, October.
    18. Greco, Salvatore & Ishizaka, Alessio & Matarazzo, Benedetto & Torrisi, Gianpiero, 2015. "Stochastic Multiattribute Acceptability Analysis: an application to the ranking of Italian regions," MPRA Paper 68508, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Sabina Alkire & James Foster, 2011. "Understandings and misunderstandings of multidimensional poverty measurement," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 9(2), pages 289-314, June.
    20. Pinar, Mehmet & Stengos, Thanasis & Topaloglou, Nikolas, 2020. "On the construction of a feasible range of multidimensional poverty under benchmark weight uncertainty," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 281(2), pages 415-427.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Multidimensional Welfare; Composite Index; e-Contamination; Polyhedral Geometry; Social Choice; Approximation Algorithms;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C02 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - General - - - Mathematical Economics
    • C61 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Optimization Techniques; Programming Models; Dynamic Analysis
    • D04 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Policy: Formulation; Implementation; Evaluation
    • D71 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Social Choice; Clubs; Committees; Associations
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:fem:femwpa:2013.40. 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: Alberto Prina Cerai (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/feemmit.html .

    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.