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Weighting scheme (%) of the 2014 EPI components  

Weighting scheme (%) of the 2014 EPI components  

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Technical Report
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The latest edition of the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) was presented and discussed on January 2014 during the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos. The EPI is released biannually since 2006 by Yale and Columbia Universities, in collaboration with the Samuel Foundation and the WEF. The EPI ranks how well countries perform on h...

Citations

... A high correlation suggests that it is reasonable to further aggregate the objectives into an index, given that they share some common variance. Meanwhile, two objectives resulted as either not correlated at all, or even moderately negatively correlated (in those cases further aggregation into an index was not advisable) (Athanasoglou, Weziak-Bialowolska, & Saisana, 2014). Table 4 reveals a high positive significance relationship between "T&T Policy and Enabling Conditions" and "Infrastructure," having a value of 0.820. ...
Article
This study aims to propose an index for measuring tourism destination competitiveness in the Caribbean Region. The application purpose is to fill the absence of Caribbean destinations in international rankings. Thirty three destinations and 27 indicators were considered, grouped into the 4 sub‐indexes of the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index. The application was based on Goal Programming and Data Envelopment Analysis. Four dimensional rankings and a global rank were established as a useful tool for policy makers. The results demonstrate the proposal's explanatory power and methodological improvements in building composite indicators to measure the competitiveness of destinations.
... The Low-Carbon City framework indicated plans for such analyses as future work [42]. In contrast, uncertainty and sensitivity analyses are an essential aspect of determining the quality assessment of indices [50] and are prevalent for indices at the country level, including the Environmental Performance Index [51][52][53]. Concurrently, there is another gap in the literature for integrating city indices with scenarios that consider any changes in the benchmarking results based on strategic approaches, which can provide extra opportunities for policy-learning. This context and the urgency of urban challenges for energy, water and environment systems have provided ample motivation for the present research work. ...
Article
Urban areas provide strategic settings for attaining more sustainable urban systems. This paper provides fivefold contributions to the literature based on the Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems City Index. A comprehensive benchmarking of 120 cities is undertaken of which the first three cities are found to be Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Helsinki. Uncertainty and sensitivity analyses are conducted by comparing the original ranking with those based on Monte Carlo simulations and three aggregation schemes with and without the use of the geometric mean. The ranking of cities that take place in the 95% confidence interval and strong coefficients of correlation are found to suggest aspects of index robustness. As the third contribution, a scenario that represents the cross-sectoral strategy of utilizing residual energy in the urban vicinity from the industry, thermal power generation, wastewater, and urban biowaste is applied to 60 cities. The integration of data from the Pan-European Thermal Atlas provides additional practical value to local decision-makers who can assess possible improvements in city performance through such an approach. Fourth, 13 city pairs of 3 or more cities with the same above or below average performances across the dimensions of the index are identified as another means of supporting policy-learning opportunities. The fifth contribution synthesizes the original results of the research work to discuss the need for integrated urban transitions and proposes a vision for cities to envision the sustainable development of urban energy, water and environment systems. The research work provides analytical support to cities in a time when local actors are tasked with a mission that is nothing less than leading the transition to net-zero emissions by mid-century.
... Existing critiques point out to a lack of imputation of missing values, weight assignation based on the quality of the data and on relevance of variables for a given policy issue, with unclear justification (Das Neves Almeida and García-Sánchez 2016). Athanasoglou et al. (2014) point out to the need to add variables in Forests, Fisheries and Agriculture areas as the existing ones do not contribute to index variation. They also show that variables (Average Exposure to PM2.5 and PM2.5 Exceedance) contribute with less than 1% in overall variation, and that changes in weighing method leads to wide variations in country ranks (Athanasoglou et al. 2014). ...
... Athanasoglou et al. (2014) point out to the need to add variables in Forests, Fisheries and Agriculture areas as the existing ones do not contribute to index variation. They also show that variables (Average Exposure to PM2.5 and PM2.5 Exceedance) contribute with less than 1% in overall variation, and that changes in weighing method leads to wide variations in country ranks (Athanasoglou et al. 2014). Shaker and Zubalsky (2015) also point out that EPI fails to include socio-economic measures of sustainability. ...
Article
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A desired characteristic of composite indicators is sensitivity to major adverse events. This paper explores how major civil wars and the 2004 tsunami have influenced Human Development Index (HDI) and Environmental Performance Index (EPI) index values of the affected countries, respectively. The analysis shows that HDI and EPI scores have barely changed, being almost exclusively due to variations in GNI/capita for HDI and air quality for EPI. This casts doubt on the composite indexes’ usefulness and their ability to reflect major environmental and societal changes in the affected countries, or shows which dimensions are truly resilient to these events and can constitute a sustainable base for postwar/post-disaster recovery. Human progress and ecological indicators may need an overhaul, in order to account for the changes that actually happen at a point in time, in order to capture substantial changes in the socio-economic and ecological fabric of a country. View article at https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007/s11205-017-1805-z?author_access_token=6jMgj9S7dBrOAjG-JxgIofe4RwlQNchNByi7wbcMAY6FY11hvEpdUoHiB1aJeDtVPLUtD64hjW0owi1A4iBrmzjrGai6kDdGWr-nBNllcisD8oCfqZgbt_UzRWS-I7mtHpXfaRXdQi9aspKIV6ftGQ%3D%3D
... These outcomes cover several issue areas: Health Impacts, Air Quality, Water and Sanitation, Water Resources, Agriculture, Forests, Fisheries, Biodiversity and Habitat, and Climate and Energy (Hsu et al., 2016) grouped within two policy objectives, Environmental Health and System Vitality. Throughout its development, EPI has been audited five times by The Econometrics and Applied Statistics Unit at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) (Athanasoglou et al., 2014) and improvements have been made following their findings. The last assessment was rather favorable in establishing that the index has a fairly good performance in tracking the environmental performance on the main policy outcomes, that component variables are relevant to the issue areas identified; it also acknowledged the collaboration with the development team in solving the identified problems/shortcomings (Athanasoglou et al., 2014). ...
... Throughout its development, EPI has been audited five times by The Econometrics and Applied Statistics Unit at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) (Athanasoglou et al., 2014) and improvements have been made following their findings. The last assessment was rather favorable in establishing that the index has a fairly good performance in tracking the environmental performance on the main policy outcomes, that component variables are relevant to the issue areas identified; it also acknowledged the collaboration with the development team in solving the identified problems/shortcomings (Athanasoglou et al., 2014). However, its lack of sensitivity to major adverse events for the majority of its components (Oţoiu and Ţiţan, 2017) has led to the question of its ability to track the actual changes of environmental performance and to achieve a ranking of the countries relevant to their short and mediumterm performance. ...
... Neves Almeida and García-Sánchez (2016) note that weights are assigned based on the quality of the data and relevance to policy issues. Athanasoglou et al (2014) as well as Thomakos and Alexopoulos (2016) note that existing variables in Forests, Fisheries and Agriculture areas do not contribute to index variation and advised that other variables need to be added in order to solve this issue. The expert weighting that is being used leads to the situation where the contribution of some key environmental variables to the overall index variation is negligible (e.g. ...
Article
While environmental composite indexes are useful tools in ranking the relative performance of countries on characteristics of interest, critiques are being made about their lack of relevance and responsiveness pertaining to changes in the environment; this negatively affects their usefulness and relevance. In this paper, an alternative to the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) is proposed by constructing a proof-of-concept index based on component variables whose changes reflect the actual state of the environment and the environmental sustainability on the particular dimensions measured. The proposed Environmental State and Sustainability Index (ESSI) also takes into account the relationships between variables in constructing the composite index by checking the relevance of the theoretical environmental dimensions against factor components, which explains the complex relationships between environmental variables and aims at achieving a relevant weighting of the component variables. Results indicate that ESSI scores are comparable with EPI and reflect better the actual situation of some countries with high-rank differences. Thus, ESSI can be used as a basis for constructing or revising environmental indicators that are closer to the objective of achieving a truly overarching measure of the state of the environment that is relevant in informing policy and reflect actual changes in the component dimensions as relevant data becomes available.
... As a general guideline, for each indicator, the highest correlation coefficient should be within the same pillar (Athanasoglou, Weziak-Bialowolska, & Saisana, 2014). Assigned treatments are presented in Table 3. Flags 1, 2 and 3 are treated by reassessing directions and/or dropping indicators. ...
... EPI (Environmental Performance Index) is a composite index structured on two levels of priority for the quality of life, i.e. the protection of human health against the harmful effects on the environment and the ecosystem's protection. To rigorously quantify environmental performance, the substantiation of the index has involved taking into consideration details relating to: impact on health, air quality, water and sanitation, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, climate and energy, biodiversity and habitat, etc. (Athanasoglou et al., 2014). EPI is designed by the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy (YCELP) and the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia University, in collaboration with the Samuel Family Foundation and the World Economic Forum. ...
Article
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This study investigates the dynamic relationship between economic growth, energy consumption, financial development, and CO2 emissions at macro level in the case of 49 countries from Europe and Central Asia over a two-year period. The research focuses exclusively on country-level characteristics and uses a heteroscedasticity-consistent standard error estimator (HC3) to analyze the aforementioned relationship. The proposed econometric models test whether: i) the level of development of financial markets, the extent of energy consumption, and the degree of economic freedom of a nation are environmentally beneficial, and ii) the economic development is influenced by the governmental and corporate engagement towards sustainability, growth of financial markets and environmental performance. Results of the first test support the view that emission intensity is positively linked with the high level of functioning of the money market and capital market, the extent of energy consumption by companies and individuals and the high degree of eco-efficiency. Results of the second test show that the commitment of nations to sustainability and corporate commitment to sustainability reporting positively influence economic growth, while financial development and environmental performance are detrimental to economic development. © 2017 Gh. Asachi Technical University of Iasi. All right reserved.
... The practical question concerns their usefulness, for example in monitoring systems or the setting of policy targets. The answer is intimately related to the science or policy from which the relevant indicators originated (Athanasoglou, Weziak-Bialowolska, & Saisana, 2014;Cohen & Saisana, 2014;Saisana & Philippas, 2012). ...
Article
For decades, the focus of cultural, social, and economic policies has been shifting to cities. Cities with the highest concentration of creative employment have demonstrated the greatest resilience in the post-2008 economic recovery. Although, over the last few years, there has been an explosion of cultural or creative related indices for cities, no single reference index is commonly accepted. The main thrust of this article is the provision of a systematic and practical framework for a common point of departure for future index developers. To this end, 38 of the most influential culture and creativity indices were reviewed. By adoption of the indicator-driven approach, 16 dimensions corresponding to aspects of culture and creativity were identified in the city context. These dimensions are presented in a novel taxonomy of 3 clusters that aims to distinguish indicators capturing core cultural and creative activities from those oriented on measuring cities’ organic background or socio-economic outcomes of the aforementioned activities. In addition, the main obstacles most commonly faced by index developers are described and grouped into 4 distinct conceptual challenges, namely (a) precision, (b) diversity, (c) comparability, and (d) spillover. Each challenge is discussed in detail, accompanied by a systematic approach to its solution.
... Note that the approach presented in this chapter can be used to actually improve the indices by tuning the weights as to obtain the desired importance[13]. The approach has been implemented in two important indices: the INSEAD-WIPO Global Innovation Index[18]and the Environmental Performance Index developed by Yale University[2]. ...
Chapter
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Multidimensional measures (often termed composite indicators) are popular tools in the public discourse for assessing the performance of countries on human development, perceived corruption, innovation, competitiveness, or other complex phenomena. These measures combine a set of variables using an aggregation formula, which is often a weighted arithmetic average. The values of the weights are usually meant to reflect the variables importance in the index. This paper uses measures drawn from global sensitivity analysis, specifically the Pearson correlation ratio, to discuss to what extent the importance of each variable coincides with the intentions of the developers. Two nonparametric regression approaches are used to provide alternative estimates of the correlation ratios, which are compared with linear measures. The relative advantages of different estimation procedures are discussed. Three case studies are investigated: the Resource Governance Index, the Good Country Index, and the Financial Secrecy Index.
... At the same time, numerous studies examined the sensitivity of indices to changes in equal versus unequal weighting schemes and aggregation rule. For example, Saisana et al. (2005a), Saisana andSaltelli (2008, 2010), and Athanasoglou et al. (2014) analysed the variation of country ranks in the Environmental Performance Index, including through the analysis of weight-aggregation pairs. Among other studies, Saisana et al. (2005b) analysed the variation of country ranks in the Technology Achievement Index. ...
Article
Airlines are mobile, micro-communities that exhibit varying levels of performance. This paper develops and applies a composite indicator to address a gap in the literature for benchmarking airlines based on aspects of sustainable aviation. First, the concept of aircraft metabolism is developed to relate flows of energy, carbon dioxide emissions, water, and waste with operational outputs, such as the transport of revenue loads. The Sustainable Airline Index is then constructed based on 4 dimensions and 20 indicators to benchmark aircraft metabolism. The dimensions are 1) airline services and quality, 2) fuel consumption and efficiency, 3) carbon dioxide emissions and intensity, and 4) sustainable aviation measures. The index is applied to a sample of 16 airlines based on data from corporate sustainability reporting and annual reports. The results are compared based on six schemes that involve equal or unequal weights with linear or geometric aggregation. Unequal weights are determined based on exploratory factor analysis. The net change in rank among all schemes is 2.3. Monte Carlo experiments are also conducted to rank airlines based on simulated mean values in which the top 4 airlines in the sample are A 9 , A 11 , A 3 and A 15. Airlines that decouple revenue loads from similar increases in resource usage have higher rankings in the composite indicator based on well-rounded performances in aircraft metabolism. The results are applicable to support the carbon neutral growth strategy of the sector and to consider multiple dimensions towards more sustainable practices on the airside of aviation.
... For examples of this method of establishing aggregation weights, see e.g.Athanasoglou et al. (2014),Węziak-Białowolska (2015). ...
Article
Full-text available
The country-specific conditions for work and family reconciliation (family policies, labour market structures and gender norms) are believed to influence tensions between paid employment and childbearing. So far there have been very few attempts to quantify these conditions into a single measure which would allow for comparisons across countries of the magnitude of the barriers that working parents encounter. Such a quantitative index could also facilitate a quantitative investigation of the association between the macro-level conditions for work and family reconciliation and fertility at the individual level. In this paper, we seek to fill this gap by proposing a quantitative index of country-specific conditions for work and family reconciliation, which may be used, for example, in a two-level regression framework. The index takes into account all three components of the conditions for work and family reconciliation. We also perform a series of uncertainty and sensitivity analyses which verify the robustness of our assumptions and which illustrate the range of the index volatility.