Developing a sustainable development goals index for OECD countries: An effectiveness-based hierarchical data envelopment analysis

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) consist of a set of multidimensional indicators comprising 17 goals and 169 targets from various perspectives. The use of a composite index is crucial for assessing the overall performance of each country in relation to the SDGs, given the extensive range of indicator measures involved. However, different weight schemes may lead to different results. Therefore, incorporating an objective weight is required to ensure the comparability and accuracy of the index. The main objective of this paper is to construct an SDG index for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries using an effectiveness-based hierarchical data envelopment analysis (H-DEA) model and apply it to assess SDG effectiveness in OECD countries. The results of this study provide countries with more valuable insights based on the weights of the goals (indicators) that are endogenous to the dataset, assisting them in identifying priorities and strategies to improve future SDG performance.