Examining macroeconomic performance of G20 countries with multi-criteria decision making methods TOPSIS and SAW

Abstract

There are many studies in the literature to analyze the macroeconomic performance of countries. These studies contribute to obtaining various results by analyzing the subject with different indicators. The aim of this study is to examine the macroeconomic performances of G20 countries for the 2022 period with the TOPSIS and SAW methods from the Multi-Criteria Decision Making Methods and to compare the results obtained for both methods. In this study, variables such as growth, import, export, inflation, unemployment, foreign direct investment, gross domestic product and expenditure were used. However, the European Union, Argentina and Russia were not included in the study because the World Bank did not publish data for some variables for the 2022 period. In the TOPSIS method, the country that gave the best results was Italy, while in the SAW method, the country that gave the best results was the People's Republic of China. In addition, Turkey was ranked last in the TOPSIS method, while South Africa was ranked last in the SAW method. The different application steps for both methods caused this difference in the results. The fact that the study includes different and detailed macroeconomic indicators for the G20 countries constitutes its unique aspect and reveals its difference from other studies in the literature.