Rebuilding the Pillars of Sustainable Society Index: a Multivariate Post Hoc I-distance Approach

Dejan Savić

savicd@fon.bg.ac.rs
Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia (Serbia)

Veljko Jeremić


Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia (Serbia)

Nataša Petrović


Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia (Serbia)


Abstract

Sustainable Society Index (SSI) is a composite indicator constructed to measure and describe societal progress along all three dimensions of sustainable development: human, environmental and economic. In this paper, we explore possibilities to evaluate and enhance SSI ranking calculation methodology based on the use of an iterative multivariate post hoc I-distance approach. Based on the assessment on how each indicator contributes to the final position of different countries and identification of the most influential indicators, we examine possibilities of reduction of a number of indicators. The goal is to improve the stability of the ranking results and overall quality of the model, focusing on the analysis of the relative contribution of the indicators in an iterative assessment process. By this, we provide in-depth analysis and more comprehensive understanding of specific factors that determines one country ranking position. Thus proposed approach can support policymakers to identify key indicators and focus the priority areas where investment in improvement measures and programs would have the most efficient impact on the overall positioning of the country.


Keywords:

sustainable development, Sustainable Society Index, composite indicators, I-distance, relative contributions

AEO, Country note Niger, http://www.africaneconomicoutlook.org/en/country-notes/west-africa/niger/ (4.08.2015).
  Google Scholar

BORINI R., 2012, Well-being and GDP: Why we need them both. http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/blog/well-being-and-gdp.htm (30.7.2015)
  Google Scholar

BRADSHAW C., 2012, Little left to lose: deforestation and forest degradation in Australia since European colonization, in: Journal of Plant Ecology, vol. 5, no 1, p. 109-120.
  Google Scholar

CAMINADA K., GOUDSWAARD K., VAN VLIET O., 2010, Patterns of welfare state indicators in the EU: Is there convergence?, in: Journal of Common Market Studies, vol. 48, no 3, p. 529-556.
  Google Scholar

CHALKLEY B., HAIGH M., HIGGITT D., 2013, Education for Sustainable Development, Routledge, London.
  Google Scholar

COBB C., HALSTEAD T., ROWE J., 1995, The Genuine Progress Indicator: Summary of data and methodology, Redefining Progress, San Francisco, 1995.
  Google Scholar

DAGHER L., YACOUBIAN T., 2012, The causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth in Lebanon, in: Energy policy, vol. 50, p. 795-801.
  Google Scholar

DALY H. E., COBB J. B., 1989, For the common good: redirecting the economy toward community, the environment, and a sustainable future, Beacon Press, Boston.
  Google Scholar

DOBROTA M., BULAJIC M., BORNMANN L., JEREMIC V., 2015a, A new approach to the QS university ranking using the composite I-distance indicator: Uncertainty and sensitivity analyses, in: Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology (in press).
  Google Scholar

DOBROTA M., MARTIC M., BULAJIC M., JEREMIC V., 2015b, Two-phased composite I-distance indicator approach for evaluation of countries’ information development, in: Telecommunications Policy, vol. 39, no. 35, p. 406-420.
  Google Scholar

ESTY D., LEVY M., SREBOTNJAK T., DE SHERBININ A., 2005, Environmental Sus-tainability Index: Benchmarking National Envi-ronmental Stewardship, Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy, New Haven.
  Google Scholar

ESTY D., LEVY M., SREBOTNJAK T., DE SHERBININ A., KIM C., ANDERSON B., 2006, Pilot 2006 Environmental Performance Index, Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy, New Haven.
  Google Scholar

EWING B., MOORE D.; GOLDFINGER S., OURSLER A., REED A., WACKERNAGEL M., 2010, The Ecological Footprint Atlas 2010, Global Footprint Network, Oakland.
  Google Scholar

GIOVANNINI E., NARDO M., SAISANA M., SALTELLI A., TARANTOLA A., HOFFMAN A., 2008, Handbook on constructing composite indicators: methodology and user guide, OECD, Paris.
  Google Scholar

HAMILTON K., ATKINSON G., PEARCE D., 1997, Genuine Savings As An Indicator of Sustainability, CSERGE working paper, UK Economic and Social Research Council, Swindon.
  Google Scholar

IAEA, 2005, Energy indicators for sustainable development: guidelines and methodologies, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna.
  Google Scholar

IMF, 2014, Chad Country Report No. 14/100, http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2014/cr14100.pdf (3.08.2015).
  Google Scholar

ISLJAMOVIC S., JEREMIC V., PETROVIC N., RADOJICIC Z., 2015, Colouring the socio-economic development into green: I-distance framework for countries welfare evaluation, in: Quality & Quantity, vol. 49, 617-629.
  Google Scholar

IVANOVIC B., 1973, A Method of Establishing a List of Development Indicators, UNESCO, Paris.
  Google Scholar

IVANOVIC B., 1997, Classification Theory, Institute for Industrial Economic, Belgrade.
  Google Scholar

JEREMIC V., BULAJIC M., MARTIC M., MARKOVIC A., SAVIC G., JEREMIC D., RADOJICIC Z., 2012, An evaluation of European countries health systems through distance based analysis, in: Hippokratia, vol. 16, no 2, p. 170-174.
  Google Scholar

KOJUCHAROV N., 2007, Poverty, Petroleum & Policy Intervention: Lessons from the Chad-Cameroon Pipeline, in: Review of African Political Economy, vol. 34, p. 477-496.
  Google Scholar

LUZZATI T., GUCCIARDI G., 2015, A non-simplistic approach to composite indicators and rankings: an illustration by comparing the sustainability of the EU Countries, in: Ecological Economics, vol. 113, p. 25-38.
  Google Scholar

MARICIC M., JANKOVIC M., JEREMIC V., 2014, Towards a Framework for Evaluating Sustainable Society Index, in: Revista Română de Statistică, vol. 3, p. 49-62.
  Google Scholar

MARKOVIC M., ZDRAVKOVIC M., MITROVIC M., RADOJICIC A., 2015, An Iterative Multivariate Post Hoc I-Distance Approach in Evaluating OECD Better Life Index, in: Social Indicators Research (in press).
  Google Scholar

MATHERS C.D. et al., 2003, Methods for Measuring Healthy Life Expectancy, in: Health systems performance assessment: debates, methods and empiricism, eds. Murray C.J.L., Evans, D., World Health Organization, Geneva.
  Google Scholar

MEBRATU D., 1998, Sustainability and sustainable development: Historical and conceptual review, in: Environmental Impact Assessment Review, vol. 8, p. 493-520.
  Google Scholar

NEP, 2014, Norway Economy Profile 2014, http://www.indexmundi.com/norway/economy _profile.html (1.08.2015).
  Google Scholar

OLIVIER J., JANSSENS-MAENHOUT G., PETERS J., 2013, Trends in global CO2 emissions – 2013 Report, Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, The Hague.
  Google Scholar

PARUOLO P., SAISANA M., SALTELLI A., 2013, Ratings and rankings: Voodoo or science?, in: Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A, vol. 176, no 3, p. 609-634.
  Google Scholar

PETROVIC N., 2012, Ecological management, Faculty of Organizational Sciences, Belgrade.
  Google Scholar

PISSOURIOS I. A., 2013, An interdisciplinary study on indicators: A comparative review of quality-of-life, macroeconomic, environmental, welfare and sustainability indicators, in: Ecological Indicators, vol. 34, p. 420-427.
  Google Scholar

PITERS G., ANDREW R., BODEN T., CANADELL J., CIAIS P., LE QUERE C., MARLAND G., RAUPACH M., WILSON C., 2013, The challenge to keep global warming below 2°C, in: Nature Climate Change, vol. 3, p. 4-6.
  Google Scholar

RANDALL A., 2008, Is Australia on a sustainability path? Interpreting the clues, in: Australian Journal of Agricultural & Resource Economics, vol. 52, no 1, p.77-95.
  Google Scholar

RINGARD Å., SAGAN A., SPERRE SAUNES I., LINDAHL A.K., 2013, Norway: health system review, in: Health Systems in Transition, vol. 15, no 8.
  Google Scholar

SAISANA M., D’HOMBRES B., 2008, Higher education rankings: Robustness issues and critical assessment. How much confidence can we have in higher education rankings? Joint Research Centre, Ispra.
  Google Scholar

SAISANA M., PHILIPPAS D., 2012, Sustainable Society Index (SSI): Taking societies’ pulse along social, environmental and economic issues, Joint Research Centre, Ispra.
  Google Scholar

SALTELLI A., 2007, Composite Indicators between analysis and advocacy, in: Social Indicator Research, vol. 81, no 1, p. 65-77.
  Google Scholar

SALTELLI A., RATTO M., ANDRES T., CAMPOLONGO F., CARIBONI J., GATELLI D., SAISANA M., TARANTOLA S., 2008, Global sensitivity analysis, The Primer, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester.
  Google Scholar

SSI, 2014, Sustainable Society Index – your compass to sustainability, http://www.ssfindex.com/ssi/ (1.7.2015).
  Google Scholar

SVANSTROM M., LOZANO-GARCIA F.J., ROWE D., 2008, Learning outcomes for sustainable development in higher education, in: International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, vol. 9, no 3, p. 339-351.
  Google Scholar

UN, 2005, World Summit Outcome, Resolution A/60/1, http://data.unaids.org/Topics/UniversalAccess/worldsummitoutcome_resolution_24oct2005_en.pdf (4.07.2015).
  Google Scholar

UNDESA, 2007, Indicators of Sustainable Development: Guidelines and Methodologies, Third edition, UN, New York.
  Google Scholar

UNDP, 2014, Human Development Report 2014 – Sustaining Human Progress: Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience, United Nations Development Programme, New York.
  Google Scholar

UNESCO, Education Indicators Technical guidelines, http://www.uis.unesco.org/Library/Documents/eiguide09-en.pdf (15.07.2015).
  Google Scholar

VAN DE KERK G., MANUEL A., 2008, A comprehensive index for a sustainable society: The SSI – the Sustainable Society Index, http://www.sd-network.eu/pdf/resources/Sust%20Society%20Index%20SSI%202008.pdf (13.07.2015).
  Google Scholar

VAN DE KERK G., MANUEL A., 2014, Sustainable Society Index 2014, Sustainable Society Foundation, The Hague.
  Google Scholar

WB, World Databank Portal, http://databank.worldbank.org/data/home.aspx (29.07.2015)
  Google Scholar

WCED, 1987, Our Common Future, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1987.
  Google Scholar

WGI, Worldwide Governance Indicators portal, http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/index.aspx#doc (15.07.2015).
  Google Scholar

WHO, Definitions of Indicators, http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/monitoring/jmp04_2.pdf (22.07.2015).
  Google Scholar

Download


Published
2016-01-04

Cited by

Savić, D., Jeremić, V., & Petrović, N. (2016). Rebuilding the Pillars of Sustainable Society Index: a Multivariate Post Hoc I-distance Approach. Problemy Ekorozwoju, 11(1), 125–134. Retrieved from https://ph.pollub.pl/index.php/preko/article/view/4967

Authors

Dejan Savić 
savicd@fon.bg.ac.rs
Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia Serbia

Authors

Veljko Jeremić 

Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia Serbia

Authors

Nataša Petrović 

Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia Serbia

Statistics

Abstract views: 14
PDF downloads: 3