The Analysis of the Relative Performance of the Middle East in Terms of Sustainable Development Indices

Subject Areas : Regional Planning

اسماعیل Safarelizadeh ¹ , رباب Hosseinzadeh ² , مجید Akbari ³

1 - استادیار گروه جغرافیا و برنامه ریزی شهری، دانشگاه پیام نور، تهران، ایران
2 - استادیار گروه جغرافیا و برنامه ریزی شهری، دانشگاه پیام نور، تهران، ایران
3 - دانشجوی دکتری جغرافیا و برنامه ریزی شهری، دانشگاه پیام نور، تهران، ایران

Received: 2016-11-22 Accepted : 2018-03-02 Published : 2018-04-21

Keywords: development, Efficiency, Sustainable Development, Data Envelopment Analysis, the Middle East,

Abstract :

     Development as a process is the most important issue in developing countries. Moreover, sustainable development is regarded as a driving force behind a balanced, appropriate, and economically, socially, and culturally coordinated development of all countries, particularly developing countries. This paper has tried to analyze the performance of thirteen countries in the Middle East between 2009 and 2012 in terms of 32 economical, social and environmental indicators of sustainable development. The research method is descriptive-analytic and it is an applied study. To analyze the data, a linear programming model, nonparametric data envelopment analysis model, and software dae slover Shannon entropy were used. The geographical scope of the research was the Middle East and thirteen countries constitute its population. The results of the study displayed that among the indicators of sustainable development, the region's gross domestic product as well as employment and savings rate showed the highest correlation coefficients of 0.74, 0.64 and 0.58%, respectively, with the values ​​in the output variable of sustainable development. In terms of relative efficiency, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, with the efficiency level of 1% and a high performance level, proved to be effective countries whereas Iraq, Yemen, and Syria, with the efficiency level of 0.974, 0.961 and 0.957, respectively, and a poor performance level were acknowledged as inefficient countries in terms of sustainable development indicators in the Middle East. In total, the results of the present study showed that more than 60% of the Middle East countries had a moderate performance level with respect to sustainable development indicators from 2009 to 2012.  

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