Mashup Indices of Development

dc.creatorRavallion, Martin
dc.date2013-08-26T16:55:34Z
dc.date2013-08-26T16:55:34Z
dc.date2012-02-01
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-01T01:06:55Z
dc.descriptionCountries are increasingly being ranked by some new “mashup index of development,” defined as a composite index for which existing theory and practice provides little or no guidance for its design. Thus the index has an unusually large number of moving parts, which the producer is essentially free to set. The parsimony of these indices is often appealing—collapsing multiple dimensions into just one, yielding seemingly unambiguous country rankings, and possibly reducing concerns about measurement errors in the component series. But the meaning, interpretation, and robustness of these indices and their implied country rankings are often unclear. If they are to be properly understood and used, more attention needs to be given to their conceptual foundations, the tradeoffs they embody, the contextual factors relevant to country performance, and the sensitivity of the implied rankings to the changing of the data and weights. In short, clearer warning signs are needed for users. But even then, nagging doubts remain about the value-added of mashup indices, and their policy relevance, relative to the “dashboard” alternative of monitoring the components separately. Future progress in devising useful new composite indices of development will require that theory catches up with measurement practice.
dc.formatapplication/pdf
dc.identifierWorld Bank Research Observer
dc.identifier1564-6971
dc.identifierdoi:10.1093/wbro/lkr009
dc.identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/10986/15345
dc.identifierhttps://doi.org/10.1596/15345
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/123456789/415324
dc.languageen_US
dc.publisherOxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank
dc.relationWorld Bank Research Observer
dc.rightsCC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO
dc.rightshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo/
dc.rightsWorld Bank
dc.subjectcitations
dc.subjectClassification
dc.subjectcompetitive markets
dc.subjectentry
dc.subjectGDP
dc.subjectgeneralization
dc.subjectheadings
dc.subjectincome
dc.subjectIndices
dc.subjectlibraries
dc.subjectliteracy
dc.subjectprobability
dc.subjecttradeoffs
dc.subjectuser
dc.subjectusers
dc.subjectweb
dc.subjectwebsite
dc.subjectwebsites
dc.titleMashup Indices of Development
dc.typeJournal Article
dc.typeArticle de journal
dc.typeArtículo de revista

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