Ranking and classification of cryptocurrency exchanges using the methods of a multidimensional comparative analysis

Research background: The multidimensional assessment of the attractiveness of cryptocurrency exchanges seems to be an important issue, because the risk of the collapse of such an exchange or its use for illegal purposes is higher than in the case of traditional exchanges. Purpose: The aim of the work is to create ranking and identify groups of cryptocurrency exchanges with a similar level of attractiveness. Research methodology: 13 different composite indicators were considered. Finally, one of them was chosen as a representative according to the similarity of the obtained rankings. Clustering methods were used to identify groups of exchanges with a similar level of the constructed measure. Result: The best according to the adopted criteria of rankings similarity was the taxonomic measure constructed using the standardized sum method with equal weights. Combining hierarchical clustering with the k-means algorithm allowed to improve the quality of clustering measured with the silhouette index. Novelty: The originality of the paper lies in the use of different methods of a multidimensional comparative analysis on the cryptocurrency market.

The PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF HUMAN RESOURCES HIGHER EDUCATIONIN KOPERTIS III JAKARTA AREA

Purpose of this study was to find out and understand the profile of Higher Education Human Resources (PT), the quality of Human Resources for Higher Education, and determine the quality of Higher Education in Kopertis III in the Jakarta Region by using data from 2015 to 2017. The method used in this analysis is a study of documentation and surveys. In addition, key performance indicators (IKU) were used from the Kopertis III Education Strategy Plan for the Jakarta Region in 2015-2019 to assess the quality of Higher Education. The results show that there are 332 Higher Education under the auspices of Kopertis III in the Jakarta Region, which consists of PT Private institutions in the form of Universities of 57 Universities (17.17%), in the form of 15 Institute institutes (4.52%), in the form of Colleges 125 (37.65%), in the form of academies, 121 (36.45%) and 11 polytechnics (3.31%). but the students are only 58.39% and the lecturers are 71.83%. Based on 7 indicators, the feasibility of teaching lecturers was only 37.65%, permanent lecturers were 67.82%, professorship professors were 3.59%, senior lecturers were 19.84%, and most teaching staff of SM graduates were 34.82% . Based on 5 composite indicators selected, the quality of PT is only 49.85, meaning less than half. Based on the results of the analysis of the authors, it is recommended that further research be carried out regarding PT data collection, especially lecturers with all the details and whether the composite indicators used are appropriate to measure the quality of PT.

Measuring Quality of Public Hospitals in Croatia Using a Multi-Criteria Approach

Quality of public hospital services presents one of the most important aspects of public health in general. A significant number of health services are delivered due to public hospitals. Under the World Bank program “Improving Quality and Efficiency of Health Services: Program for Results”, the competent bodies in Croatia aimed to identify the top 40% best-performing public acute hospitals in Croatia, based on a clinical audit in the preceding 12 months. This paper presents how this goal was achieved, using a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach. A MCDM approach was selected due to the multidimensionality and complexity of healthcare performance and service quality. We aimed to develop a methodology for ranking top-performing hospitals at the national level. We chose the composite indicator methodology, combined with the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) as a tool for determining weights for aggregation of individual indicators. The study looked at three clinical entities: acute myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular insult, and antimicrobial prophylaxis in colorectal surgery. Indicators for each entity were evidence-based, following the national guidelines, but limited by availability of data. The clinical audit and databases of competent administrative bodies were used as sources of data. The problem investigated in this paper has a significant impact at the strategic (national) level. Even though the AHP has already been applied in the public health domain, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first application of the AHP in combination with composite indicators for hospital ranking at a national level. The AHP enabled participation of experts from the audited hospitals in the assessment of indicator weights. Results show that composite indicators can be successfully implemented for acute hospital evaluation using the AHP methodology: (1) the AHP supported a flexible structuring of the problem; (2) the resulting complexity of pairwise comparisons was appropriate for the experts (consistency ratios were under 0.1); (3) using the AHP approach enabled a successful aggregation of different opinions into group priorities; (4) the developed methodology was robust and enabled identifying the top 40% ranking best-performing public acute hospitals in Croatia combining 20 criteria within three entities, based on input from 36 clinical experts. The proposed methodology can be useful to other researchers for assessment of healthcare quality at the strategic level.

Development of Composite Indicators of Cyclical Response in Business Surveys

The article proposes a new set of composite indicators-predictors in business tendency surveys, which allow identifying early information signals of a cyclical nature in the economic behavior of business agents. The main criterion for the efficiency of such indicators is their sensitivity to a cyclical pattern and changes in the dynamics of statistical referents. Property such as a statistically significant lead in time series or earlier publication allows them to be combined into indicators of early response. The composite Business Activity Indicator (BAI) in the basic sectors of the Russian economy is calculated by the authors for the first time based on the results of regular (monthly and quarterly) business surveys of Rosstat for 1998–2020 with a large-scale coverage of sampling units. In 2020, the number of survey respondents averaged about 20,000 organizations of all sizes. The index reflects the «common» profile in the dynamics of short-term fluctuations of the key parameters of the economic environment, which consists of the «balances of opinions» of respondents to the questions unified for all sectoral surveys and connected with the reference quantitative statistics with cross-correlation coefficients that are statistically significantly different from zero, with a lead at least one quarter. This is its main difference from the well-known indices of economic sentiment and entrepreneurial confidence. The main components of the BAI are the new composite indices of real demand, current output, real employment, total profits and economic situation. They aggregate the relevant «order» statistics for the basic sectors of the national economy, including the main kinds of industrial activities, retail trade, construction, and services.The article provides a methodological substantiation and an extended procedure for identifying the BAI components; their composition is formed for the entire set of retrospective results of business tendency monitoring in Russia. A new Aggregate Economic Vulnerability Indicator with a counterdirectional profile and varying degrees of symmetry of its dynamics relative to the short-term movement of the BAI is being introduced as the main limitation of business activity. Proactive monitoring of emerging vulnerabilities in the business environment is necessary to warn their large-scale accumulation, prevent the risks of economic downturns and ensure the highest possible macroeconomic stability. This integrated approach makes it possible to determine the novelty of the proposed measurements of short-term cyclical fluctuations in economic development.