Synthesis of indicators
the composite indicators approach
pp. 159-191
in: Filomena Maggino (ed), Complexity in society, Berlin, Springer, 2017Abstract
In recent years, the debate on the measurement of multidimensional phenomena has caused, within the worldwide scientific Community of developed countries, a renewed interest. It is common awareness that a number of socio-economic phenomena cannot be measured by a single descriptive indicator and that, instead, they should be represented with a multiplicity of aspects or dimensions. Phenomena such as development, progress, poverty, social inequality, well-being, quality of life, etc., require, to be measured, the "combination' of different dimensions, to be considered together as components of the phenomenon (Mazziotta and Pareto 2013). In fact, the complex and multidimensional nature of these phenomena requires the definition of intermediate objectives whose achievement can be observed and measured by individual indicators. The mathematical combination (or aggregation as it is termed) of a set of indicators that represent the different dimensions of a phenomenon to be measured can be obtained by applying methodologies known as composite indicators or composite indices (Saisana and Tarantola 2002; Salzman 2003; OECD 2008).