A thumb rule approach to express the regional efficiency (attractiveness) of geographical areas or administrative units is the position efficiency.
Let Ei1, Ei2, … , Ein, Mi1, Mi2,..., Mim be the values of criteria (statistics) according to which the socio-economic image of an area Ai will be assessed (i=1,2,…,k). Let also assume that for the first n criteria maximization is required to attain efficiency whereas for the last m of them minimization is required. An area Ai is characterized by position efficiency at level k, in the context of a set (A1, A2,…, Ak) of k areas under assessment, if for any criterion j under assessment Eij is among the k largest values of the set (E1j, E2j,…,Enj) and at the same time Mij is among the k smallest values of the set (M1j, M2j,…,Mkj).
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