Abstract:

The aim of this study is to divide countries into groups according to their prosperity levels with Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) and Cluster Analysis (CA) methods and to show the applicability of the methods. In this context; The 2019 updated data of 12 prosperity indicators and 167 countries in The Legatum Prosperity Index (LPI) were used. In the study, firstly, Entropy-based ELECTRE TRI method, one of the MCDM methods, was applied, and countries were classified according to their prosperity levels and four groups were obtained. These four groups were determined as the number of clusters and the data were divided into clusters with the K-Means algorithm, which is one of the CA methods. Comparing the results obtained from the method of the groups was examined whether they show similarities within these indicators, Turkey was determined place in these groups. Results; It reveals that the methods are 73% similar in separating countries according to their prosperity level. However, when the indicators are examined, it is seen that the indicators that have the most impact with both methods are "market access and infrastructure, education"; On the other hand, it has been determined that the indicators with the least impact are "social capital, natural environment".

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