In this study two different hybrid ranking approaches based on data envelopment analysis and outranking relations for ranking alternatives are proposed. Outranking relations are widely used in Multicriteria Decision Making (MCDM) for ranking the alternatives and appropriate in situations when we have limited information on the preference structure of the decision maker. Yet to apply these methods DM should provide exact values for method parameters (weights, thresholds etc.) as well as basic information such as alternative scores. DEA is used for classification of decision making units according to their efficiency scores in a non-parameteric way. The proposed hybrid approaches utilize PROMETHEE (a well known method based on outranking relations) to construct outranking relations by pairwise comparisons and a technique similar to DEA crossefficiency ranking for aggregating comparisons. While first of the proposed approaches can deal with imprecise specification of criterion weights, second approach can utilize imprecise weights and thresholds.

This study aimed to reveal the relationship between quality of life and happiness in a comparative manner, to underline the importance of happiness and enable researchers to familiarize themselves with happiness in the sociological context of Turkey. Quality of life and happiness, which are multidimensional and interdisciplinary concepts, were firstly identified by looking at their treatment in different approaches. Then, they were analyzed by relating them to different variables in the European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) data which allows for making comparisons among European Union countries and Turkey. Our study is limited to four countries, namely Bulgaria, Denmark, Hungary and Turkey that were selected on the basis of two criteria / their average of happiness score and their membership status in the European Union. On the other hand, the independent variables of the study are &ldquo / having&rdquo / (material living conditions), &ldquo / loving&rdquo / (social relations), &ldquo / being&rdquo / (quality of society), &ldquo / time pressure&rdquo / (work-life balance), &ldquo / alienation&rdquo / , &ldquo / environment&rdquo / , internet using, health and socio-demographic variables namely gender, age, region, employment status and educational level. Consequently, improving quality of life resulted in happiness. In other words, the main aim of improving quality of life is to supply, improve and increase happiness.

This dissertation measures the extent of relationship between production, processing and marketing channels of fig products in Turkey for the period 1971-2003. We first provide a detailed analysis of world and Turkish fig products market. We then estimate the own price and cross price elasticities of fig products in Turkey by using simultaneous systems. The results imply that the demand facing Turkish dried fig processors is inelastic. Moreover also the producer-level dried fig price elasticity has inelastic structure. The study also finds evidence of a complementary structure between fig products apart from fresh fig.