DIGITAL ECONOMY AND SOCIETY INDEX WITH MULTI - CRITERIA DECISION MAKING METHODS

Abstract

The rapid development of information technologies directly affects the economies of the countries. The fact that most of the economic activities can be realized in the digital world increases the importance of the competitiveness of countries in the digital field. Countries aiming to be a strong player in digital competition are increasing their investments in information technologies. In this research, the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), which is one of the indices that measures digital competitiveness, published every year by the European Union (EU), has been examined. DESI aims to create a vision for decision makers in EU member states in executing their digital policies, making investment decisions and identifying areas that need improvement. According to the 2021 data of the index components, the digital economy performances of the EU member countries were re-evaluated with CRITIC and COCOSO methods, which are multi-criteria decision-making methods. In the study, unlike DESI, the weight ratios of the criteria were determined by the CRITIC method in the first, second and third stages. EU countries were ranked using the COCOSO method. Sweden ranked first and Denmark ranked second. Spain and the Netherlands were the following countries. The country that ranked first in the DESI 2021 rankings was Denmark. The country with the lowest performance according to the ranking is Romania. Greece, Bulgaria and Slovakia are other countries with low scores. The country with the lowest score in the DESI 2021 rankings was Romania.