TWO DAY WORKSHOP ON METHODOLOGY OF CONSTRUCTION OF MULTIDIMENSIONAL INDICES AND PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS

The workshop focuses on introducing the participants to multidimensional indices, their theoretical justification and methodology of construction,as well as to present some practical examples in the field of development and law.

The first part of the workshop will be concerned with the general procedure of construction of multidimensional indices. After motivating the need for multidimensional indices, especially in the area of development and wellbeing, the workshop will go on to discuss the various stages involved in their construction. Emphasis will be laid on the fact that at each stage of the procedure the researcher needs to make decisions reflecting particular value judgments, before proceeding to the next step. Two general approaches will be examined – the composite index approach with exogenous weights and the statistical approach with endogenous weights. The methodologieswill be illustrated in the context of a multidimensional index for development.

The second part of the workshop will be devoted to a detailed study of the Rule of Law index proposed by the World Justice Project. We will have a close look at the various dimensions forming the index as well as the indicators chosen for each dimension, and relate it to the general methodology discussed in the first part. Depending on accessibility and online exploration possibilities, interactive demonstrations will be performed on the website of the project to show the usefulness of such indices for an overall understanding of the state of affairs.

The workshop will be directed by Prof. Jaya Krishnakumar, full professor of Econometrics at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Her research interests include panel data econometrics, multivariate models, and quantitative methods for multi-dimensional well-being analysis. She has publications in international econometrics/economics journals such as Econometric Theory, Journal of Econometrics, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Computational Statistics and Data Analysis,Journal of Public Economics, European Economic Review,Health Economics, Review of Income and Wealth,Social Indicators Research, World Development, Journal of Human Development and Capabilities. She is a Fellow of the Human Development and Capability Association, an associate editor of the International Journal of Public Health, the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, and a referee for several top journals. She is a member of the International Scientific Committee of COSA, the Committee on Sustainability Assessment. She has supervised several research projects in theoretical and applied econometrics, in particular in the area of modelling and measurement of well-being and capabilities in health, education, work and living conditions, in recent years.

For registration, kindly mail your

• name and
• institutional affiliation along with a 
• covering letter describing your interest in the workshop

to cedl@cedl.ac.in, before February 12th, Monday.

Read the brochure here.