A composite indicator of social inclusion for European countries

Abstract

Social inclusion is one of seven key challenges of the European Union Sustainable Development Strategy. We use a set of sub-indicators to measure social inclusion for 26 member countries of the European Union. In particular, we aggregate four basic indicators in a multiplicative composite indicator via a DEA-BoD approach with weights determined endogenously by imposing proportion constraints. We obtain a score of social inclusion that allows us to grade 26 European countries in 2008, 2009 and 2010 during the European phase of the financial and economic crisis.