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Application of the “Benefit-Of-the-Doubt” Approach for the Construction of a Digital Access Indicator: A Revaluation of the “Digital Access Index”

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  • Hassen Gaaloul
  • Soulef Khalfallah

Abstract

The use of composite indicators as a tool for ranking and making decisions is ever increasing in a world marked by the inequalities and competition in all domains. However, the dependence of countries ranking on the weighing scheme used to aggregate individual indices or sub-indicators, most of the time set by experts/stakeholders may weaken the credibility of composite indicators. One method which is able to overcome these limits is the “Data Envelopment Analysis” approach, particularly named “Benefit-Of-the-Doubt” in the context of composite indicators’ construction. We propose a revaluation of the Digital Access Index given that Information technology is the most important factor driving improvement in a wide array of areas critical for the quality of life for individuals as well as societies. We have shown that this method is more suitable for identifying trends and drawing attention to particular issues and also for setting policy priorities. In fact, the weights of the individual indices, used to compute the composite indicators are based on the data itself and are proper for the country under consideration. These weights contain adequate information in order to help policy-makers to better understand the nature of the new innovation economy and the types of public policies needed to drive innovation, productivity and broad-based prosperity for its citizens. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Hassen Gaaloul & Soulef Khalfallah, 2014. "Application of the “Benefit-Of-the-Doubt” Approach for the Construction of a Digital Access Indicator: A Revaluation of the “Digital Access Index”," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 118(1), pages 45-56, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:118:y:2014:i:1:p:45-56
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-013-0422-8
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Laurens Cherchye & Wim Moesen & Tom Van Puyenbroeck, 2004. "Legitimately Diverse, yet Comparable: On Synthesizing Social Inclusion Performance in the EU," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(5), pages 919-955, December.
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    3. Giménez, Víctor & Thieme, Claudio & Prior, Diego & Tortosa-Ausina, Emili, 2022. "Evaluation and determinants of preschool effectiveness in Chile," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    4. Gulati, Rachita & Kattumuri, Ruth & Kumar, Sunil, 2020. "A non-parametric index of corporate governance in the banking industry: An application to Indian data," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    5. Su, Weihua & Chen, Sibo & Zhang, Chonghui & Li, Kevin W., 2023. "A subgroup dominance-based benefit of the doubt method for addressing rank reversals: A case study of the human development index in Europe," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 307(3), pages 1299-1317.
    6. Ravanos, Panagiotis & Karagiannis, Giannis, 2022. "Tricks with the BoD model and an application to the e-Government Development Index," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    7. Alessandro Magrini & Francesca Giambona, 2022. "A Composite Indicator to Assess Sustainability of Agriculture in European Union Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 163(3), pages 1003-1036, October.
    8. Fu-Chiang Yang & Rui-Hsin Kao & Yi-Tui Chen & Yueh-Fei Ho & Cheng-Chung Cho & Shi-Wei Huang, 2018. "A Common Weight Approach to Construct Composite Indicators: The Evaluation of Fourteen Emerging Markets," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 137(2), pages 463-479, June.
    9. Claudio Thieme & Víctor Giménez & Diego Prior & Emili Tortosa-Ausina, 2023. "Health vs. Wealth: A Cross-country Analysis of Managerial Effectiveness of the COVID-19," Working Papers 2023/10, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).
    10. 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.

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