Norint įvertinti esamą šalių situaciją, lyginti praėjusius laikotarpius ir įvardinti ateities prognozes, darnų vystymąsi reikia formalizuoti, t.y. jį reikia išreikšti kiekybinių ir kokybinių rodiklių kompleksu – darnaus vystymosi indeksais. Vienas iš paprastesnių įvertinimo būdų yra sudėtinis darnumo indeksas. Šio darbo tikslas ir yra įvertinti Lietuvos ir kitų ES šalių darnaus vystymosi pokyčius 2004 - 2010 m., naudojant sudėtinį indeksą. Norint pasiekti šį tikslą buvo išanalizuoti pagrindiniai ekonomikos, socialinio vystymosi ir aplinkos rodiklių pokyčiai ES15, Baltijos šalyse bei Lenkijoje ir Čekijoje. Pastarosios šalys buvo pasirinktos, nes visos į ES įstojo 2004 m. ir jų praeitis buvo panaši, o jų vystytmasis lyginamas su ES senbuvėmis šalimis. Sudėtiniui indeksui apskaičiuoti buvo naudota OECD metodika „Handbook on constructing composite indicators methodology and user guide“ (2008). Taip pat buvo apskaičiuoti subindeksai ir bendras darnumo indeksas. Išanalizavus duomemis paaiškėjo, kad naujų ES narių dauguma rodiklių, pvz., BVP, eksportas, energijos ir medžiagų intensyvumas, kūdikių mirtingumas, skurdas ir kt., pagerėjo analizuotu laikotarpiu. Taip pat nustatyta, kad ekonomikos subindeksas geriausias yra ES15, o aplinkos – Lietuvoje ir Latvijoje. Tuo tarpu sudėtinis darnumo indeksas 2004 ir 2010 m didžiausias buvo ES15 ir siekė 55,6 ir 57,9 balus atitinkamai. 2004 m mažiausias darnumo indeksas buvo Lenkijoje - 39,05 balai, o 2010 m – Latvijoje 45,7. Lietuvos darnumo... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Wanting to evaluate present country situation, compare past and predict forecast, harmonious progress needs to be formalized (it needs to be expressed as quantitative and qualitative index integrate – harmonious growth progress). One of the simplest evaluation methods is harmonious integrate index, which shows country harmony. This job object is to evaluate Lithuania‘s and other EU country harmonious growth alteration of year 2004-2010, applying integrate index. To achieve this goal main growth and environmental index changes of ES15 have been analyzed in Baltic States, Poland and Czech Republic. These countries were selected because they all joined EU in 2004 and their past was similar and results are compared with countries that have been longer in EU. ‘Handbook on constructing composite indicators methodology and user guide’ (2008) were used OECD methodology to calculate integrate index. Sub-indexes and total coherence indexes were also calculated. After analyzing information of countries, which recently joined EU, it has become clear that their indexes like GDP, export, energy and material intensity, children death, poverty etc. have become better after they joined EU. Also, it was estimated that economy sub-index ES15 is the best and environment – in Lithuania and Latvia. Meanwhile, integrate harmony index ES15 became biggest in 2004 and 2010 and accordingly reached 55, 6 and 57, 9 points. Smallest harmony index was in Latvia – only 39, 09 in 2004 and 45, 7 in 2010... [to full text]

The purpose of this thesis is to construct an index of adolescent health and wellness for British Columbia, Canada, using the most recent available data. A three- round Delphi study is used in order to decide on what indicators to include in the index and each indicator’s relative weight. Spatial multi-criteria analysis (MCA) is utilized to combine the indicators into a single measure. The spatial MCA, technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) method was applied to the adolescent population as a whole and to examine male and female variation. This revealed that adolescent health and wellness is not experienced equally across the province. The Health Service Delivery Areas (HSDAs) Fraser South and Fraser North proved to have the greatest levels of adolescent health and wellness while the Northwest has the least. A rural/ urban gradient in adolescent health and wellness was revealed at the HSDA level. Male and female adolescents also experience health and wellness differently, with females achieving higher health and wellness across all HSDAs in the Province when directly comparing the two genders. The findings of this research are useful in informing discussions of resource allocation for reducing inequalities and inequities and in order to target future research.

Submitted by Danilo Nascimento Lima (danilo.n.lima@unesp.br) on 2018-09-17T20:49:19Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Ultima Versão Dissertação - Versão Repositório.pdf: 1026970 bytes, checksum: d67fdab1da95a59fdff8267d2911cfc0 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Lucilene Cordeiro da Silva Messias null (lubiblio@bauru.unesp.br) on 2018-09-18T12:13:49Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 lima_dn_me_bauru.pdf: 937958 bytes, checksum: 5a584edfc20b3b204c6bb1d42147acf4 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-09-18T12:13:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 lima_dn_me_bauru.pdf: 937958 bytes, checksum: 5a584edfc20b3b204c6bb1d42147acf4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-07-05 / Resiliência é a capacidade da cadeia de suprimentos de sofrer impactos ou rupturas e se reconfigurar de forma eficiente para atender as demandas do mercado. Estas cadeias estão expostas a perturbações, que podem ser classificadas em de alto impacto, causadas por furacões e terremotos, por exemplo, ou de baixo impacto como problemas de transporte, sazonalidade, falta de flexibilidade, instabilidade produtiva ou indisponibilidade temporária de insumos que ocasiona em interrupções no fornecimento aos participantes seguintes e impacta suas operações. A construção de mecanismos de avaliação da resiliência auxilia no equacionamento destes desequilíbrios na distribuição de bens e produtos, minimizando reflexos negativos para a cadeia e seus participantes. Este trabalho visa construir um índice composto de resiliência de uma cadeia de suprimentos sugerindo uma forma de ponderação e agregação que permitam identificar o nível de a preparação das cadeias de suprimentos em lidar com interrupções e impactos. O método adotado partiu do levantamento bibliográfico de dimensões com o objetivo de propor um framework e o levantamento de indicadores encontrados na literatura, que foram avaliados por meio de painel de especialistas. O painel selecionou quais indicadores melhor mensuram as dimensões e determinou os pesos para construção do índice composto. Os resultados apontam para um Índice Composto que concatenou doze dimensões e trinta e três indicadores, sendo mais abrangente que publicações anteriores. Os avanços são a contribuição para um campo de estudo com baixo número de publicações e a participação de especialistas na construção de um IC mais aderente as necessidades dos stakeholders. As limitações identificadas neste trabalho são o número de dimensões encontradas na pesquisa realizada na base de dados, que possivelmente não abarca toda a gama de possibilidades do conceito de resiliência. / Resilience is the ability of the supply chain to undergo impacts or ruptures and to efficiently reconfigure itself to meet the demands of the market. These chains are exposed to disturbances, which can be classified as high impact, caused by hurricanes and earthquakes, for example, or low impact such as transport problems, seasonality, lack of flexibility, productive instability or temporary unavailability of inputs interruptions in supplying the following participants and impacts their operations. The construction of mechanisms to evaluate resilience helps in the equation of these imbalances in the distribution of goods and products, minimizing negative effects on the chain and its participants. This paper aims to construct a composite index of resilience of a supply chain suggesting a form of weighting and aggregation that allows identifying the level of the preparation of the supply chains in dealing with interruptions and impacts. The method adopted was based on the bibliographic survey of dimensions with the objective of proposing a framework and the survey of indicators found in the literature, which were evaluated through a panel of experts. The panel selected which metrics best measure the dimensions and determined the weights for constructing the composite index. The results point to a composite index that concatenated twelve dimensions and thirty three indicators, being more comprehensive than previous publications. The advances are the contribution to a field of study with low number of publications and the participation of specialists in the construction of an IC more adherent to the needs of the stakeholders. The limitations identified in this work are the number of dimensions found in the database research, which may not cover the full range of possibilities of the concept of resilience.

Cette thèse examine le phénomène de la compétitivité territoriale selon la Nouvelle économie géographique (NEG). Tandis que nous pensons que la compétitivité régionale est la capacité des territoires à attirer les facteurs de production mobiles, ce sujet revêt une importance accrue dans une économie mondialisée. La thèse est structurée de la manière suivante : le premier chapitre tente de positionner le débat dans le cadre de la NEG. Après avoir opté pour une vision théorique du problème, dans le chapitre 2 nous orienterons le débat vers la création d’une nouvelle définition, qui servira de fondement à la partie empirique. Le troisième chapitre propose un indice composite pour les régions européennes. Il discute des choix territoriaux, temporels, méthodologiques et conceptuels, tout en présentant et interprétant les résultats à la lumière de la NEG. Les résultats de ce chapitre posent surtout la question du lien entre la compétitivité des régions et la croissance des pays, et c’est donc pour cela que nous présenterons de façon détaillée le rôle des politiques de gestion de ce processus. / This thesis examins the phenomenon of the territorial competitiveness by using optics of the New Economic Geography (NEG). While we think that the regional competitiveness is the capacity of a local economy to attract mobile factors of production, this subject has an increasing importance within a globalized economy. The thesis is structured as follows. The first chapter represents an attempt to position the debate within the framework of NEG. After having chosen a theoretical perspective, in the second chapter we narrow the debate towards the creation of a new definition used as platform for the empirical part. Against this backdrop, the third chapter provides a novel index of regional competitiveness for European regions, a discussion on territorial, temporal and methodological choices, while presenting and interpreting the results in the light of NEG. The results of this chapter question especially the links between territorial competitiveness and national growth rate, and which is why we are discussing in a more detailed fashion the role of policies in managing these processes.

Yes / This study proposes an optimisation-based “benefit-of-the-doubt” (BoD) methodological framework for developing a new multidimensional index of bank stability. The proposed index has the ability to serve as a potent policy tool that overcomes the downsides of accounting- and market-based measures of bank stability. This data-driven approach generates endogenous weights for aggregating bank stability indicators and dimensions. Further, we integrate the BoD framework with a metafrontier approach, which we call a “meta-BoD framework”. The final outcomes of the suggested framework go beyond a scalar measure of bank stability and provide the unique weighting matrix that offers valuable policy-relevant insights about the most precarious areas of stability that require the attention of management and regulators for both micro- and macro-level policy interventions. In addition, it draws insightful information about the instability gaps across heterogenous bank groups. The study presents an illustrative example of the proposed framework to obtain a bank stability index using the dataset of 76 Indian banks operating between 2014 and 2018. The bank stability index is made up of 14 financial ratio indicators covering five dimensions of stability: asset quality, management efficiency, capital adequacy, profitability and liquidity. The findings offer the detailed information required for comprehending the evolution of bank stability and assessing instability gaps across bank groups.

Inequalities in levels of health between regions within a country are frequently regarded as a problem. Zimbabwe is characterised by poor and unequal conditions of health (both the state of people‘s health and health services). The health system of the country shows severe spatial inequalities that are manifested at provincial, district and even local levels. The current research therefore examines and analyses the spatial inequalities and temporal variation of health conditions in Zimbabwe. Composite indices were used to determine the people‘s state of health in Zimbabwe. Administrative districts were ranked according to the level of people‘s state of health. Cluster analysis was also performed to demarcate administrative districts according the level of health service provision. Districts with minimum difference were demarcated in a single cluster. Clusters were delineated using data on patterns of diseases and health and such clusters were used to demarcate the country‘s spatial health system according to the Adapted Epidemiological Transition Model. This was meant to evaluate the applicability of the model to Zimbabwe. It emerged from the research that generally the country‘s health conditions are poor and the health system is characterised by severe spatial inequalities. Some districts are experiencing poor health service provision and serious health challenges and are still in the age of pestilence and famine but others have good health service provision as well as highly developed health conditions and are in the age of degenerative and man-made diseases of the epidemiological transition model. It further emerged that the country‘s health has been evolving with signs of improvement since the 1990s. Some proposals are made in research for spatial development of health in the country. Recommendations were made regarding possible adjustment to previous strategies and policies used in Zimbabwe, for the development of the health system of the country. New strategies were also recommended for the improvement of the health system of the country. / Geography / Ph.D. (Geography)

The objective of this thesis is to evaluate alternative weighting systems to determine if they have the potential to improve the current weighting system of the Financial Secrecy Index (FSI). The FSI, a measure of countries' contributions to global financial secrecy, currently weights its 15 qualitative components equally. A web-based opinion survey conducted in January and February 2016 among academics, journalists, experts and other persons familiar with FSI serves as the baseline for assessing new weights. The new weights derived from the survey results are not significantly different from the equal weights in 14 out of 15 components. The survey results suggest that widely held opinion is consistent with equal weight assumptions. Statistical model selection criteria from information theory that penalize model complexity prefer in majority of cases the simple model over the more complex one even though more complex model provides better goodness-of-fit statistics. Alternative methods and analysis such as Principal Components Analysis is performed and discussed. The present work finds that, statistically, the weights should not diverge from the equal weighting system in use currently. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Ein zusammengesetzter Index ist eine aggregierte Variable, die aus individuellen Indikatoren und Gewichten besteht, wobei die Gewichte die relative Wichtigkeit jedes Indikators darstellen. Zusammengesetzte Indizes werden oft benutzt um latente Phänomene zu schreiben oder komplexe Informationen zu einer geringen Anzahl an Variablen zusammenzufassen. Es ist von großer Bedeutung richtige Gewichte für die Variablen, die einen zusammengesetzten Index bilden, zu wählen. Hauptkomponentenanalyse (PCA) ist ein populärer Ansatz um Gewichte abzuleiten, aber es ist ungeeignet, wenn informative Variationen nur kleine Varianzen der Variablen in einem zusammengesetzten Index haben. Deshalb schlägt diese Studie vor, Partial Least Squares (PLS) anzuwenden, welches die Beziehung zwischen Zielvariablen and den Variablen in einem zusammengesetzten Index ausnutzt. Unsere Simulationsstudie zeigt, dass PLS so gut wie PCA funktioniert oder erheblich es übertrifft. Zusätzlich sind in der Praxis die Variablen in einem zusammengesetzten Index häufig nicht-metrisch. Solche Variablen benötigen spezielle Verfahren, um PCA oder PLS anzuwenden. Diese Studie untersucht mehrere PCA und PLS Algorithmen für nicht-metrische Variablen in der vorliegenden Literatur und vergleicht sie durch umfangreiche Simulationsstudien, um Empfehlungen für die Praxis abzugeben. Dummy coding zeigt häufig zufriedenstellende Leistung im Vergleich zu komplizierteren Methoden. Als unsere Anwendungen betrachten wir Vermögen, Globalisierung, Geschlechtergleichheit und Korruption, indem PCA- und PLS-basierte zusammengesetzte Indizes angewendet werden. PLS erzeugt für die jeweiligen Zielvariablen massgeschnittene zusammengesetzte Indizes, die häufig bessere Leistung als PCA zeigten. Ein Vergleich zwischen PCA und PLS Gewichten und Koeffizienten zeigt, welche Variablen für die jeweiligen Zielvariablen besonders relevant sind.

The thesis deals with analysis of performance of the Chinese stock market. The first chapter presents basic general characteristics of the stock market and equity investment. The second chapter focuses on the specifics of Chinese stock market. The third, last, chapter analyzes performance of the Chinese stock market.

Efforts towards sustainable urban areas are fundamental for the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs], embodied in goal 11 of sustainable cities and communities. Sustainable urban development requires the goals to be localized and operationalized to the applied areas needs and prerequisites. Localization and operationalization of the goals has, however, proved to be difficult in a local setting. In relation, Neighbourhood Sustainability Assessment [NSA] tools are found to provide directives, metrics and indicators of community sustainability assessments, possibly appliable to provide guidance for local governance to operationalize the SDGs. This degree project aims to evaluate the possibility of SDG.11 attainment and policy operationalization at a local level through the use of an established NSA-tool, BREEAM-C. To do so, this degree project use deductive thematic analysis, with SDG.11 targets as analytical framework, to evaluate connectivity to SDG.11 of local policy documents stated to direct efforts of SDG.11 implementation and the selected NSA-tool manual. Further, a composite index of NSA-tool indicators, ranked and adapted to local intentions, is developed through an analytical hierarchy process. Overall strong connections, though variable, to SDG.11 are found for both municipal and NSA-tool intentions of urban development as well as between municipal and NSA-tool intentions. The proposed composite index for SDG.11 implementation is deemed to adequately answer to municipal intentions of SDG.11 implementation.