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A reassessment of the Global Food Security Index by using a hierarchical data envelopment analysis approach

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  • Chen, Po-Chi
  • Yu, Ming-Miin
  • Shih, Jou-Chen
  • Chang, Ching-Cheng
  • Hsu, Shih-Hsun

Abstract

This study proposes a hierarchical data envelopment analysis (H-DEA) approach to construct a multi-dimensional indicator, and applies it to reassess the 2014 Global Food Security Index created by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) across 110 countries. Instead of using expert opinions to assign weights, the proposed model endogenises the weights, and thus avoids the problems of subjective weighting for international comparisons. The results show that although the ranking is not significantly different from that of the EIU, the optimal scores and weights differ by income levels. Additionally, this work articulates the value of a well-founded performance evaluation method by leveraging experts’ opinions and data-driven techniques through constructing a best-practice frontier with observation-specific weights. It is suggested that food availability should be the top policy priority in low- to medium-income and Sub-Saharan African countries where food deficits are most prevalent. The findings can serve as guidance to improve the design of the ongoing efforts for global food security.

Suggested Citation

  • Chen, Po-Chi & Yu, Ming-Miin & Shih, Jou-Chen & Chang, Ching-Cheng & Hsu, Shih-Hsun, 2019. "A reassessment of the Global Food Security Index by using a hierarchical data envelopment analysis approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 272(2), pages 687-698.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:272:y:2019:i:2:p:687-698
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2018.06.045
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    2. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2022. "Measuring and Mapping Food Security Status of Rajasthan, India: A District-Level Analysis," OSF Preprints d2buh, Center for Open Science.
    3. Andrew Allee & Lee R. Lynd & Vikrant Vaze, 2021. "Cross-national analysis of food security drivers: comparing results based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale and 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. 13(5), pages 1245-1261, October.
    4. Shahari, Mohd Ridzwan & See, Kok Fong & Mohammed, Noor Syahireen & Yu, Ming-Miin, 2023. "Constructing the performance index of Malaysia’s district health centers using effectiveness-based hierarchical data envelopment analysis," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    5. Hengli Wang & Hong Liu & Danyang Wang, 2022. "Agricultural Insurance, Climate Change, and Food Security: Evidence from Chinese Farmers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-17, August.
    6. See, Kok Fong & Ng, Ying Chu & Yu, Ming-Miin, 2022. "An alternative assessment approach to national higher education system evaluation," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    7. Valiant O Odhiambo & Sheryl L Hendriks & Eness P Mutsvangwa-Sammie, 2021. "The effect of an objective weighting of the global food security index’s natural resources and resilience component on country scores and ranking," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(6), pages 1343-1357, December.
    8. Chunhua Chen & Jianwei Ren & Lijun Tang & Haohua Liu, 2020. "Additive integer-valued data envelopment analysis with missing data: A multi-criteria evaluation approach," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(6), pages 1-20, June.
    9. Atieno, Prisca, 2021. "The effects of outdated data and outliers on Kenya's 2019 Global Food Security Index score and rank," Research Theses 334773, Collaborative Masters Program in Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    10. Besik, Deniz & Nagurney, Anna & Dutta, Pritha, 2023. "An integrated multitiered supply chain network model of competing agricultural firms and processing firms: The case of fresh produce and quality," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 307(1), pages 364-381.
    11. Chen Chunhua & Liu Haohua & Tang Lijun & Ren Jianwei, 2021. "A Range Adjusted Measure of Super-Efficiency in Integer-Valued Data Envelopment Analysis with Undesirable Outputs," Journal of Systems Science and Information, De Gruyter, vol. 9(4), pages 378-398, August.
    12. Joe Zhu, 2022. "DEA under big data: data enabled analytics and network data envelopment analysis," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 309(2), pages 761-783, February.

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