Effect of adopted diagnostic variable weighing system on the results of investigation of socioeconomic development of voivodships in Poland

Abstract

The regional development is certain, complex and multidimensional statistics, ambiguously defined, and although it is frequently used, both in theory and practice, its measurement method remains inconclusive. The proper assessment of the region development level is mostly performed by the methods of linear ordering, whose basic tool is a synthetic measure, being a function aggregating partial information, contained in individual attributes (measures). The results of the research are determined at the same time not only the final list of diagnostic variables, but also the choice of the distance measure and aggregation formulas. As there are many formulas for variable standardisation, methods for weight determination, methods for averaging of standardised values, methods for establishment of reference object coordinates and formulas for distance calculation, lots of different aggregate measures. However, the literature frequently encourages to, in the absence of unambiguous indications for varied meaning and role of individual features, tacitly assume that all diagnostic variables are of the same weight, in general, there are two methods of obtaining weights for individual diagnostic variables: the weights are established by the experts’ method (a priori method) or with the use of the computation algorithms based on information included in the primary (raw) data (a posteriori method). This study will be conducted on the basis of statistical methods for obtaining weights for individual diagnostic variables (a posteriori weights).