Multi –Criteria Choice and Ranking of the Objects for Socio-Economic

Studies

TALGAT KUSSAIYNOV

S. Seifullin Kazakh Agricultural University

Nur-Sultan

KAZAKHSTAN

Abstract:- Socio-economic studies of rural areas due to their natural and economic heterogeneity combined

with the territorial dispersion of the population require the involvement of sufficiently large resources. As a

method of the analytical hierarchical process, were subjected to critical analysis. A method has been developed

which combines the advantages of currently available approaches. It is concluded that the method allows taking

into account the objective and subjective components of the choice problem as effectively as possible and

strengthens the scientific validity of the selection of appropriate rural territories for the implementation of pilot

socio-economic projects. The method has been developed and tested on the materials of the region of Northern

Kazakhstan; and it allows ranking the territories according to any set of criteria.

Key-Words: methodology, model, criterion, multi-criteria choice, ranking, socio-economic objects.

Received: August 9, 2021. Revised: March 11, 2022. Accepted: April 13, 2022. Published: May 6, 2022.

huge part of the country's population - 41.6% of the

total - still lives in rural areas [3]. At the same time,

the incomes of those employed in the agricultural

sector are the lowest: 57.4% of the average level

for all sectors [4]. Socio-economic studies of rural

areas due to their natural and economic

heterogeneity combined with the territorial

dispersion of the population require the

involvement of sufficiently large resources. The

limited resources for research inevitably raise the

accurately determine the place and severity of

depression and poverty. The main source of income

for rural residents of Kazakhstan is agricultural

entrepreneurship. The success of entrepreneurship

is determined by a number of factors, primarily the

availability of natural agricultural resources, as well

as the state of human capital [2], [7], [8], [10]. The

formation of a viable economic model of a rural

territory involves, first of all, taking into account

the quality and characteristics of human capital.

various scientific and practical aspects of the socio-

economic development of the village [1], [9], [12].

However, the methodological aspects of multi-

criteria selection and ranking of socio-economic

objects to test various socio-economic programs, as

a rule, remain without due attention. In short, the

practical impossibility of a thorough continuous

study of socio-economic systems due to limited

resources raises the question of choosing objects

from a variety of similar ones. And, the method

suitable objects for social studies based on a set of

criteria.

theoretical value - it is significant primarily in a

practical sense. It should be noted that in this article

problems.

2 Materials and Methods

Currently, there are two approaches to solving this

problem in the literature. Each of them is based on

ideas that are quite disputable. The first approach is

based on the formation of some ideal reference

options; the best values of the criteria are taken as

reference options [11]. Then the distances between

absolute values of the normalized distances is

promising) alternatives is conducted and (b)

process have equal priorities.

multi-criteria selection of the best option is called

the analytical hierarchical process; the method

became famous abroad, mainly in the United States

of America (the calculation procedure is given in.

The method allows us to find a solution to the

problem in several stages. At the first step, the

weights of the criteria are evaluated. To do this, a

matrix of numbers is constructed, representing

pairwise estimates of the preference of criteria

each criterion are "normalized" so that for each

criterion in total they give one. At the third stage,

the sum of normalized estimates weighted by the

importance of the criteria (found at the first stage)

is calculated for each alternative. Alternatives are

preferences. Another feature of the approach is that

there may be some incompatibility of estimates in

the matrix of comparative estimates of criteria.

subjectivity in the evaluation of choice options and

(b) are applicable when choosing the most

problematic alternatives that require studying and

finding ways to improve their “condition”. As well

as the considered first method of choosing the best

option, the methodology is based on the

"normalization" of the distances between the actual

(observed) values of the criteria and their critical

(reference) values. However, further calculations

are carried out taking into account the weights of

(you can take another interval, say, from 1 to 100:

the essence of the method will remain unchanged).

These numbers indicate a quantitative assessment

of how much one criterion is more important than

another for a given expert or a decision-maker.

are the numbers of the criteria being compared. In

corresponding critical values is calculated, taking

into account the weights. The resulting total

distances are then used to rank objects: the greater

the total distance, the greater the priority of the

object for research. After calculating the weights of

the criteria, the procedure for ranking and selecting

the most priority object for analysis is carried out in



largest one is selected. The corresponding object

should be considered the highest priority for the

purposes of the project.

The data reflecting the number of rural

population, the share of youth aged 16-29 years in

the structure of the rural population, the volume of

agricultural products produced in the rayons of

Akmola and North-Kazakhstan oblasts of the

Republic of Kazakhstan for 2014-2020 have been

used (Table 1). The presence of urban-type

settlements in certain rural areas suggests a

considered separately in the calculations.

Techniques and procedures based on the

normalization of the distances of the values of each

of the criteria to the corresponding critical values,

pair-wise comparison of the priority of the criteria

and calculation of the weights of each of them have

been applied.

There are 17 rural rayons in Akmola oblast. The

task is to rank the rayons in accordance with a set

of criteria, followed by the selection of the highest

rural population, the volume of agricultural

products produced in the rayon. Data of the first

type were used to classify rayons according to their

degree of ruralization. The second and third types

of data allow us to assess the state and prospects of

human capital in the rayons in general terms. The

fourth one reflects in an integrated form the agro-

economic conditions (quantity, quality and

3 Results and Discussion

It follows from the data in Table 1 that there are

two types of rural areas in the region: (a) with the

presence of urban settlements, and (b) absolutely

rural, where there are no urban settlements of any

form.

For each of the two groups, we make

criterion are accepted as critical for use in the

analysis.

In accordance with the methodology, we first

calculate the distances between the values of the

criteria and their corresponding critical values in

each of the considered areas. The calculation

results are shown in Table 2.

Then, the distances found must be "normalized",

that is, reduced to a relative indicator by dividing

the distances by the corresponding critical values

according to the formula (1). The results of the

calculations are presented in Table 3.

To assess the priority of the criteria, local

experts from rural areas were involved. Pair-wise comparative estimates of the criteria are shown in

Table 4.

Table 4. Pair-wise comparative estimates of the criteria.

experts, the criterion "Volume of agricultural

production" has priority over two other criteria: to a

agricultural production is the main source of

income, (b) the proportion of young people in the

total population indicates the prospects of the

with a different formulation of the task, the

prioritization would be different.

Further, based on the estimates obtained, it is

criteria: agricultural production received the highest

priority (0.724), followed by the share of young

people aged 16-29 in the total rural population

preliminary check of the matrix for the

incompatibility of estimates. Some researchers

suggest introducing the CI incompatibility index

matrix, in accordance with the above procedure, the

then averaged.

the index.

the incompatibility index, at R=0, there is no

incompatibility at all. This is achieved when the

estimates for consistency is very time-consuming.

At the same time, it should be emphasized that the

presence of some inconsistency of estimates does

not affect the procedure for further calculations in

any way. It is also obvious that the degree of

incompatibility of the assessment matrix directly

depends on the qualification and thoroughness of

the work of experts who conduct such assessments.

Therefore, it is very important to involve qualified

experts in the analysis from the very beginning.

objectivity to the subjective component by

quantifying subjective assessments.

The presented scheme and procedures for

The methodology allows using a variety of criteria,

and their number is in principle unlimited.

However, considerations of practicality and

convenience of calculations may require limiting

the number of criteria used, depending on the

natural, economic and social conditions of the

territories. Therefore, further research is of interest

to identify the most important criteria and their

typification by natural and economic zones of the

countries and regions concerned.

population, it is important to have a methodology

that allows assessing and selecting the most

appropriate socio-economic systems.

Selection of a pilot object for research and

approbation of various socio-economic programs is

a multi-criteria task. The proposed methodology

allows us to take into account any numerically

representable characteristics of socio-economic

systems in the analysis. It combines the advantages

of currently available approaches to solving the

Acknowledgement:

The author expresses his gratitude to the team of

the research project "Methodology of analysis and

optimization of the rural county socio-economic

model (based on the materials of the Northern

Kazakhstan)" for the assistance in collecting data

on socio-economic development of rural areas of

the region. The research has been funded by the

Science Committee of the Ministry of Education

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Sources of Funding for Research Presented in a

Scientific Article or Scientific Article Itself

Committee of the Ministry of Education and

Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Grant No.

AP09259525).

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Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0

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