A Hybrid Enhanced Scatter SearchComposite I-Distance Indicator (eSS-CIDI) Optimization Approach for Determining Weights Within Composite Indicators

Abstract

Considering the impact composite indicators can have on public opinion and policy development, the need for their frameworks to be methodologically sound and statistically verified is growing daily. One of the issues in the process of composite indicator construction which has generated much debate is how to choose the weighting scheme. To address this slippery step, we propose an optimization approach based on the enhanced Scatter Search (eSS) metaheuristic. In this paper, the eSS algorithm is applied to obtain a weighting scheme which will increase the stability of the composite indicator. The objective function is based on the relative contributions of indicators, while the problem constraints rely on the bootstrap Composite I-distance Indicator (CIDI) approach which is also proposed herein. The eSS-CIDI approach combines the exploration capability of eSS and the data-driven constraints devised from the bootstrap CIDI. This novel weighting approach was tested on two acknowledged composite indicators: the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) and the Networked Readiness Index (NRI). Results indicate that the composite indicators created using the eSS-CIDI weighting approach are more stable than the official ones.