COMIC (COMposite Indices Creator)

The COMIC software computes composite indices, by various aggregation methods, and evaluates their robustness. COMIC calculates composite indices relevant to different periods of time.

COMIC deals with:

• different format acquisition (.csv or .xls or .txt or SAS) for different individual indicators available for each unit, as specified by users;
• standardization/normalization of the individual indicators;
• different aggregation methods;
• output display in both tables and graphics;
• comparison of the results;
• sensitivity and robustness analysis to evaluate the composite indices.

COMIC has implemented the following aggregation methods:

• Mean indices 0-1. Arithmetic mean of individual indicators normalized by min-max method;
• Mean z-scores. Arithmetic mean of standardized individual indicators;
• Jevons Index. Geometric mean of  individual indicators computed as index numbers;
• Mazziotta-Pareto Index (MPI). Arithmetic mean of standardized individual indicators; a penalty is subtracted from the mean to take into account the variability of the individual indicators (MPI with negative penalty);
• Adjusted Mazziotta-Pareto Index (AMPI). Arithmetic mean of the individual indicators normalized by the min-max method; a penalty is subtracted from the mean to take into account the variability of the individual indicators (AMPI with negative penalty);
• Geometric Mean Index (IMG). Geometric mean of the individual indicators normalized by the min-max method.

Status: validated

Author: Istat

Licence: EUPL-1.1

GSBPM code: 6.1 Prepare draft outputs

Programming language: SAS

Language of the GUI: IT

Keywords: composite indices, normalization, aggregation, ranking, sensitivity, robustness

Contact:

name: Pierpaolo Massoli
email: pimassol@istat.it

SOFTWARE DEPENDENCIES

SAS for Windows (SAS base)

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2013 Istat

Licensed under the European Union Public Licence (EUPL), version 1.1 or subsequent. You may not use this work except in compliance with the Licence. You may obtain a copy of the Licence at: http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/eupl.html. Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the Licence is distributed on an “AS IS” basis, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the Licence for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the Licence.

DISCLAIMER

Istat assumes no responsibility for the results arising from use of the instrument that is inconsistent with the methodological guidance contained in the documentation available.

DOWNLOAD

Release date: 27/02/2017

COMIC version 1.9

TECHNICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL DOCUMENTATION

Manuale utente – Comic v. 1.9

OTHER DOCUMENTATION

Massoli, P., M. Mazziotta, A. Pareto, and C. Rinaldelli 2015. “COMIC: a tool for composite indices evaluation“. Conference Dealing with complexity in society: from plurality of data to synthetic indicators. Università di Padova, Padova, 17-18 Settembre 2015.