Giuseppe Munda

European Commission | ec · Joint Research Centre (JRC)

Sustainability policy evaluation and assessment seeks to answer the key question, sustainability of what and whom? Consequently, sustainability issues are multidimensional in nature and feature a high degree of conflict, uncertainty and complexity. Social multi-criteria evaluation (SMCE) has been explicitly designed for public policies; it builds o...

A fair public policy assessment process should always consider the ethical obligation of taking a plurality of social values, perspectives and interests into account. An appropriate policy assessment framework should allow integrating different scientific languages, when concerns about civil society and future generations have to be considered alon...

This paper presents a systematic discussion, mainly for non-economists, on economic approaches to the concept of sustainable development. As a first step, the concept of sustainability is extensively discussed. As a second step, the argument that it is not possible to consider sustainability only from an economic or ecological point of view is defe...

SOCRATES (SOcial multi-CRiteria AssessmenT of European policieS) is a software tool explicitly designed for impact assessment problems. Three main components constitute the core of SOCRATES: multi-criteria, equity and sensitivity analyses. The impact matrix may include quantitative (including also stochastic and/or fuzzy uncertainty) and qualitativ...

social-multi-criteria evaluation, multiple criteria decision analysis

When a public administration wishes to implement policies, there is a previous need of comparing different options to assess their social attractiveness. A fair policy assessment process should consider the ethical obligation of taking a plurality of social values, perspectives and interests into account; there is no doubt that Impact Assessment (I...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to deal with one of the technical difficulties of private and social cost–benefit analysis, i.e. the choice of the proper cost–benefit aggregation rule (or method) to use, when a private capital investment decision has to be taken or a public project appraisal has to be carried out. Design/methodology/approach...

This Chapter presents a set of quantitative modelling approaches, connected to various steps of the policy cycle, that aim at helping policy-makers and all social actors involved, by providing a scientific sound framework for a systematic, coherent and transparent analysis. Practical guidelines for structuring policy problems by using uncertainty a...

Condorcet consistent rules were originally developed for preference aggregation in the theory of social choice. Nowadays these rules are applied in a variety of fields such as discrete multi-criteria analysis, defence and security decision support, composite indicators, machine learning, artificial intelligence, queries in databases or internet mul...

Education is considered an important factor of economic growth, employment and social inclusion. However, the economic crisis has put the need to achieve educational goals in the most efficient way ever more to the fore. The main objective of this paper is to assess the spending efficiency of European compulsory educational systems, creating a rank...

Public administrations need to assess policy options before their implementation; often there is some uncertainty if cost-benefit analysis (CBA) or multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) should be used. This Chapter aims at showing that MCE may help economics at overcoming some of its current difficulties in the empirical assessment of public policy optio...

Mediterranean cultural landscapes are currently undergoing intense transformations, resulting in a polarization of land uses across an intensification-abandonment continuum. This transformation is characterized by uncertain and non-linear interactions and impacts on ecosystem services and human wellbeing. Our study focuses on a particular multifunc...

The expansion of the mining extraction frontier in Latin America is fomenting a growing number of conflicts where contrasting views regarding the economic, environmental, social and cultural implications of developing mining activities are deployed by affected communities, governments and mining companies. Hegemonic discourses led by governments st...

When one wishes to formulate, evaluate and implement public policies, the existence of a plurality of social actors, with interest in the policy being assessed, generates a conflictual situation. How such a conflict should be dealt with? This paper defends the thesis articulated in the following points: (1) Different metrics are linked to different...

Sustainable development is a multidimensional concept, including socio-economic, ecological, technical and ethical perspectives. In making sustainability policies operational, basic questions to be answered are sustainability of what and whom? As a consequence, sustainability issues are characterised by a high degree of conflict. The main objective...

This paper tries to answer the following research question: can multidimensional concepts like well-being or sustainability be measured by using a single metric such as shadow prices? The defence of shadow prices is generally based on the pragmatic argument that different dimensions (economic, social, environmental,…) cannot be aggregated when meas...

When one wishes to formulate, evaluate and implement public projects or policies, the existence of a plurality of social actors, with interest in the options being assessed, generates a conflictual situation. In this article, I show that the compensation principle was invented by Kaldor and Hicks to achieve two clear objectives: to compare individu...

In the last decades, a growing quantity of literature has been written about concepts such as quality of life and well-being as a proxy for evaluating societal prosperity and progress. This paper analyses the theoretical foundations and the empirical validity of multi-dimensional technical tools that can be used for well-being measurement. There is...

From a formal point of view, a composite indicator is an aggregate of all dimensions, objectives, individual indicators and variables used for its construction. This implies that what defines a composite indicator is the set of properties underlying its mathematical aggregation convention. In this article, I try to revise the theoretical debate on...

Non-compensatory aggregation rules are applied in a variety of problems such as voting theory, multi-criteria analysis, composite indicators, web ranking algorithms and so on. A major open problem is the fact that non-compensability implies the analytical cost of loosing all available information about intensity of preference, i.e. if some variable...

Composite indicators are very common in economic and business statistics for benchmarking the mutual and relative progress of countries in a variety of policy domains such as industrial competitiveness, sustainable development, globalisation and innovation. As a consequence, improvements in the way these indicators are constructed and used seem to...

MUNDA G. and SAISANA M. Methodological considerations on regional sustainability assessment based on multicriteria and sensitivity analysis, Regional Studies. This paper proposes the use of a non-compensatory multicriteria approach combined with sensitivity analysis for constructing composite indicators of sustainability. An illustrative example on...

Starting from a concise overview of the state of the art and ongoing debate on economic evaluation, a main though partial conclusion, of current thinking on the topic is that any evaluation exercise should always incorporate a plurality of perspectives on what constitutes value. The main reason is the existence of a plurality of social actors with...

Energy planning refers to providing sufficient power to human societies while at the same time underlies resource, economic environmental, social and technological constraints. The complexity of the task renders multi-criteria decision analysis techniques a useful tool in the decision process. Multi-criteria decision analysis techniques offer a tra...

Composite indicators are very common in economic and business statistics for benchmarking the relative progress of countries in a variety of policy domains such as industrial competitiveness, sustainable development, globalisation and innovation. This article provides an analysis of the key uncertainties underlying the mathematical modelling used t...

Composite indicators (or indexes) are very common in economic and business statistics for benchmarking the mutual and relative progress of countries in a variety of policy domains such as industrial competitiveness, sustainable development, globalization and innovation. The proliferation of the production of composite indicators by all the major in...

In the area of environmental and resource management and in policies aiming at sustainable development, conflicting issues and interests are the normal state of affairs. Mathematical approaches cannot of course be a panacea able to resolve all real-world conflicts; but they can help to provide more insight into the nature of these conflicts by prov...

A case study is presented with two objectives: (i) to give a clear and simple illustration of social multicriteria evaluation in the field of rural renewable-energy policy, and (ii) to help in understanding the extent to which, and the circumstances under which, solar energy is suitable for electrifying isolated farmhouses. Our aim is to provide pu...

Sustainable development is a multidimensional concept, including socio-economic, ecological, technical and ethical perspectives. In making sustainability policies operational, basic questions to be answered are sustainability of what and whom? As a consequence, sustainability issues are characterized by a high degree of conflict. The main objective...

可持续发展是一个多维概念, 涵盖了社会—经济、生态、技术以及伦理等多方面的内容。要制定切实可行的可持续发展政策, 必须解答的基本问题是实现谁的可持续发展? 以及实现什么样的可持续发展? 这就使得可持续性具备了高度冲突性。本文的主要目的是说明多指标决策分析方法是一种足以应对可持续性冲突的策略。作者对理论焦点和现实生活中获得的经验教训进行了分析, 同时提出了 “最佳实践” 指南。

Expounds the need to bring together differing scientific languages Establishes a clear relationship between social and public choice on one hand and multiple criteria decision analysis on the other The treatment of technical uncertainty (both stochastic and fuzzy) is explored in depth This is a hugely important work that looks at the need to bring...

Environmental modelling depends on a great quantity of data; usually these data are converted to parameters and indicators for use as inputs to models. An important problem is the aggregation of these data. Usually this is done pragmatically and unsystematically and the aggregation procedure depends heavily on the opinion of individual experts. In...

Although wind energy has the green image, the location of windfarms is always a source of local conflicts. Opposition may depend on the extensive land use of windfarms, their possible impacts on tourism or their visual impact, as well as NIMBY (Never In My Back-Yard) behavior. On the other hand, some social actors are normally in favor of wind park...

This article develops a methodological framework to provide insights regarding the suitability of multi-criteria techniques in the context of renewable energy planning. The second section presents main characteristics of the particular decision-making process. The third section presents the main multi-criteria analysis methods, and the fourth secti...

The current European climate and the revitalised Lisbon strategy have put social cohesion at the heart of the European policy agenda. Active Citizenship is an essential element of the strategy, putting the spotlight on values, representative democracy and civil society. The question is how a concept such as active citizenship can be measured. This...

This paper attempts to provide an explanation of why reductionist approaches are not adequate for urban sustainability policy-making. Concepts derived from ecology such as urban environmental carrying capacity and ecological footprint. and concepts coming from economics such as cost benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis are discussed. Social mult...

Science for sustainability policy requires the handling of multi-dimensional and multi-scale analyses. Integrated assessment is about generating information relevant for decision-making. This generates a divide between two scientific paradigms: (1) ‘Post-Normal Science’ acknowledges the unavoidable existence of non-equivalent perceptions and repres...

Sustainability management and planning is mainly a social decision process about the desired future of a given city, region or country. A possible reduction of the unavoidable complexity, present in this type of problems, consists in considering explicitly non-equivalent representations which arise in the interaction between the various observer su...

So far, the elementary question of whether one countrys or regions economy is moving towards sustainability or away from it cannot be answered with unanimous consensus on the measuring rod(s) to be employed. The main assumption of this article is that sustainability assessment needs a set of multi-dimensional indicators. From this assumption a ques...

Since Kyoto Protocol, the international community is compromising itself to reduce greenhouse gases emissions. However, the implementation of energy policies, such as the construction of renewable energy installations, in many cases doesn’t suit with local perceived necessities and causes conflicts. In this paper, some types of local conflicts orig...

Sustainable development is a multidimensional concept, including socio-economic, ecological, technical and ethical perspectives. In making sustainability policies operational, basic questions to be answered are sustainability of what and whom? As a consequence, sustainability issues are characterised by a high degree of conflict. The main objective...

Composite indicators are very common in economic and business statistics for benchmarking the mutual and relative progress of countries in a variety of policy domains such as industrial competitiveness, sustainable development, globalisation and innovation. The proliferation of the production of composite indicators by all the major international o...

In order to address contemporary issues economics and decision sciences need to expand their empirical relevance by introducing more and more realistic (thus more complex) assumptions in their models. One of the most interesting research directions in the field of public economics is the attempt to introduce political constraints, interest groups a...

The growth of world population and the rapid growth of economic activity have caused environmental stress in all socio-economic systems. The report by the World Commission on Environment and Development “Our Common Future” (known as the “Brundtland report” after the chairperson of the Commission) spells out the major threats to human beings’ common...

Cualquier problema de decisión social se caracteriza por conflictos entre valores e intereses que compiten y diferentes grupos y comunidades que los representan. Por ejemplo, en la gestión ambiental, las metas de biodiversidad, los objetivos del paisaje, los servicios directos de diferentes entornos como fuentes de recursos y como sumideros de dese...

In order to address contemporary issues economics and decision sciences need to expand their empirical relevance by introducing more and more realistic (thus more complex) assumptions in their models. One of the most interesting re- search directions in the field of public economics is the attempt to introduce political constraints, interest groups...

Este artigo defende essencialmente a possibilidade de utilização do conceito de "Avaliação Social Multicritério" como enquadramento da aplicação da escolha social aos problemas complexos de definição de políticas que este milénio levanta, numa altura "em que os factos são incertos, os valores discutíveis, os riscos elevados e as decisões urgentes"....

this report do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European Communities or other European Communities institutions. Neither the European Environment Agency nor any person or company acting on the behalf of the Agency is responsible for the use that may be made of the information contained in this report. A great deal of additional i...

A key issue in operationalizing fuzzy set theory (particularly in decision analysis) is how to compare fuzzy numbers. In this paper, the case of L–R fuzzy numbers, i.e. the most general form of fuzzy numbers, is considered. In particular here, L–R fuzzy numbers represented by continuous, convex membership functions allowing also definite integratio...

The policy problem addressed in this article is the perceived under-exploitation of the potential availability of water resources in the town of Troina (a municipality of eastern Sicily, Italy). In order to help the local town administration, which raised this issue, a trans-disciplinary research team was formed with the purpose of testing some exp...

Most insights of environmental economics are in line with the standard neoclassical economic model of rational behaviour, formulated in terms of maximization of utility in general, or of profits in particular. The standard theory of environmental policy is a case in point. However, the maximization hypothesis and its methodological foundation have...

Abstract Most insights of environmentaleconomics,are in line with the standard neoclassical economic model of rational behaviour, formulated in terms of maximization of utility in general, or profits in particular. The standard theory of environmentalpolicy is a case in point. However, the maximization,hypothesis and its methodological,foundation h...

Most insights of environmental economics are in line with the standard neoclassical economic model of rational behaviour, formulated in terms of maximization of utility in general, or profits in particular. The standard theory of environmental policy is a case in point. However, the maximization hypothesis and its methodological foundation have bee...

The main argument of this paper is that weak comparability of values should be seen as one characteristic feature of ecological economics. The formal properties of the concepts of strong comparability (implying strong or weak commensurability) and weak comparability (implying incommensurability) will be clarified. Multicriteria evaluation offers th...

The limits inherent in conventional decision theory methodologies and the necessity to analyse conflicts between policy objectives have led to many calls for more appropriate analytical tools for strategic evaluation. As such multicriteria evaluation does not itself provide a unique criterion for choice; rather it helps to frame the problem of arri...

This paper presents a systematic discussion, mainly for non-economists, on economic approaches to the concept of sustainable development. As a first step, the concept of sustainability is extensively discussed. As a second step, the argument that it is not possible to consider sustainability only from an economic or ecological point of view is defe...

A fundamental step in integrated environmental assessment (IEA) is the choice of an assessment framework. The usual attempt to develop integrated assessments of different options is to apply a cost-benefit analysis (CBA), which is an important part of the IEA, but at the same time is one of its weakest points. One should note that this paper does n...

A key issue multicriteria evaluation in a fuzzy environment is how to compare fuzzy numbers. In this paper, the case of criterion scores in the form of L-R fuzzy numbers, i.e. the most general form of fuzzy numbers, will be considered.

It is nowadays increasingly realised that environmental and resource problems generally have complicated economic and ecological dimensions. Therefore, there is a clear need for models offering a comprehensible and operational representation of a real-world environmental system. A great variety of quantitative (descriptive and forecasting) models h...

La gestion de l’environnement est essentiellement une analyse de conflits caractérisés par des jugements de valeurs techniques, socio-économiques, environnementaux et politiques. Ainsi, dans tout processus de gestion environnementale, il est fort difficile d’arriver à une solution cohérente et non ambigu. Ceci implique qu’un tel processus multidime...

Fundamental step in the structuring of siting problems in general and the siting of retail and service facilities in particular is the generation of alternatives. This should occur at the beginning of the process of facility location. The identification of a manageable number of alternatives aims at providing a preliminary insight into the feasibil...

One of the main differences among evaluation models is between monetary and non-monetary evaluation. Cost-benefit analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis are well-known examples of a monetary evaluation. In the past decades the degraded state of the natural environment has become a key issue, and it is increasingly taken for granted that environme...

This paper attempts to analyse in a critical way some essential aspects of the multiple-criteria decision aid (MCDA) methodology using modern epistemological instruments. Particular attention is paid to the problem of information precision and uncertainty and to the distinction considered essential between the concepts of choice and decision. Since...

This paper deals with the difficult issue of measuring well-being. We are aware that this concept is very complex and we are not giving any final answer here. However we are convinced that even the simple attempt of measuring well-being may produce valuable lessons to be learned at a societal level. This paper tackles with three main issues: 1. The...

Resumen: Cualquier problema de decisión social se caracteriza por conflictos entre valores e intereses que compiten y diferentes grupos y comunidades que los representan. Por ejemplo, en la gestión ambiental, las metas de biodiversidad, los objetivos del paisaje, los servicios directos de diferentes entornos como fuentes de recursos y como sumidero...

In this article, a real-world case- study is presented with two general objectives: to give a clear and simple illustrative example of application of social multi-criteria evaluation (SMCE) in the field of rural renewable energy policies, and to help in understanding to what extent and under which circumstances solar energy is suitable for electrif...

The main argument developed here is the proposal of the concept of “Social Multi-Criteria Evaluation” (SMCE) as a possible useful framework for the application of social choice to the difficult policy problems of our Millennium, where, as stated by Funtowicz and Ravetz, “facts are uncertain, values in dispute, stakes high and decisions urgent”. Thi...

This paper attempts to provide an explanation of why reductionistic approaches are not adequate to tackle the urban sustainability issue in a consistent way. Concepts such as urban environmental carrying capacity and ecological footprint are discussed. Multicriteria evaluation is proposed as a general multidimensional framework for the assessment o...