Global composite indices implicitly contain at least three structural levels

Evidence

Virtually all of the literature on “composite” indices assumes a multidimensional structure. This dimensional structure generates the problem discussed in the previous two chapters of getting a common scale for these dimensions. The multilevel nature of the basic framework is much less clear in the methodological literature on composite indices. If one were to diagram the many—if not virtually all—global indices they would have at least three levels, if not more. — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts and Measurement, 920

Categorization

• XREF: Ties to the book’s multilevel framework; the claim that nearly all global indices are secretly multilevel is a testable empirical generalization.