Macroeconomic indicators are essential measures that reflect the overall economic wellbeing of a region or country and have a significant impact on investment decisions. The data on macroeconomic indicators for Turkish development regions facilitate a comparison of macroeconomic performance between these regions. This kind of analysis can help enhance the development levels of the regions while ensuring resources are used efficiently. This study compares the macroeconomic performance of Turkish development regions between 2019 and 2022 using a hybrid multi-criteria analysis method. A total of 26 regions were evaluated based on seven criteria: GDP, GDP per capita, employment rate, number of enterprises, export, unemployment rate, and import. The criteria were weighted using the Step-Wise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA) method and ranked using the Combined Compromise Solution (CoCoSo) method. This study addresses a gap in the literature by analyzing the macroeconomic performance of Turkish regions, aiming to reduce economic disparities. The results showed that the Istanbul region had the best performance over the 4-year period, while Eastern Anatolia experienced a consistently declining performance, ranking last. Some regions had fluctuating performances, while others maintained steady outcomes. This study advances research by offering a more reliable and comprehensive analysis, thereby contributing to the improvement of future studies on regional economic development.

Advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—framed around social, environmental, and governance dimensions—offers societies across the world the possibility of achieving long-term prosperity and ensuring that future generations enjoy a high quality of life. Governments pursue the 17 SDGs in accordance with their own socioeconomic and cultural contexts, institutional capacities, and available resources. Because countries differ substantially in structure and capability, their progress toward these goals varies, making the systematic measurement and analysis of SDG performance essential for appropriate timing and efficient resource allocation. This study proposes a hybrid assessment system to evaluate the sustainable development performance of upper-middle-income developing countries under both fuzzy and non-fuzzy environments. This integrated evaluation system consists of four main stages. In the first stage, evaluation criteria and alternative countries are specified, relevant data are obtained, and an initial decision matrix is developed. In the second stage, an efficiency analysis is conducted to identify countries that are efficient and those that are not. In the third stage, evaluation criteria are weighted using AHP and Fuzzy AHP methods. In the final stage, the TOPSIS and Fuzzy TOPSIS methods are used to rank efficient countries depending on sustainable development performance criteria. As a result, six countries were identified as inefficient countries based on sustainable development: China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Paraguay, Namibia and Turkmenistan. The AHP and Fuzzy AHP methods produced similar criterion weight values compared to each other. The criteria were prioritized from most important to least one as follows: Life expectancy, expected years of schooling, mean years of schooling, gross national income per capita, CO₂ emissions per capita, and material footprint per capita. While some countries achieved similar rankings using the TOPSIS and Fuzzy TOPSIS methods, most countries achieved different rankings because of the multidimensional nature of sustainable development. When the rankings obtained from the fuzzy and non-fuzzy approaches were compared, a noticeable level of overlap was observed, with a Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient of 68.73%. However, the fuzzy TOPSIS method is considered more reliable for assessing sustainable development performance due to its ability to handle data uncertainty, imprecision, and the multidimensional nature of SDG indicators. The results of this study demonstrate that analyses related to sustainable development, which may not contain precise and clear values and have a complex structure encompassing many areas such as social, environmental, and governance, should preferably be conducted within a fuzzy logic framework to ensure more robust and credible evaluations.

Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7) aims to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all. Evaluating the effectiveness of national energy policies in achieving this goal requires comprehensive and quantitative assessment frameworks. Countries’ performance toward SDG 7 is influenced by various structural factors, including energy demand growth, dependency on energy imports, renewable energy potential, and policy priorities. Therefore, systematic performance evaluation is essential for understanding policy effectiveness and identifying areas requiring improvement. This study evaluates Türkiye’s SDG 7 energy policy performance on a yearly basis over the period 2014–2023. A multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework combining the Stepwise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA) and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) methods is employed to quantify and compare performance across years. The proposed approach allows for the determination of indicator weights and the ranking of yearly performance levels based on multiple energy sustainability criteria. The results reveal an overall upward trend in Türkiye’s SDG 7 performance during the study period, although notable fluctuations are observed. A significant decline occurs in 2017, followed by a rapid recovery in subsequent years. Another temporary downturn is identified in 2021, while a remarkable improvement emerges in 2023. A sensitivity analysis based on multiple weighting scenarios was also conducted to examine the robustness of the obtained rankings, and the results confirm the stability of the overall ranking structure, with 2023 consistently maintaining the top position across most scenarios. These findings provide insights into how policy measures, market dynamics, and energy system developments influence the country’s progress toward sustainable energy goals. By incorporating a time-based evaluation framework, this study contributes to the SDG 7 literature by offering a quantitative and policy-oriented assessment of national energy performance. The proposed framework also provides a practical analytical tool for policymakers and energy regulators to monitor progress, identify vulnerable areas, and support evidence-based decision-making in the transition toward sustainable and clean energy systems.

This study examines the effect of financial stability and economic freedom levels of developing countries on economic growth. A financial stability index was calculated in this study to represent the financial stability of developing countries, whereby the Heritage Foundation "Economic Freedom Index" was used to represent their economic freedom. Econometric analyzes were conducted within the framework of the 2000-2020 period in 16 developing countries of the upper-middle income bracket. As a result of the models estimated utilizing the Moment Quantile Regression Method (MM-QR), it was observed that the effect of economic freedom and financial stability on economic growth is positive and statistically significant for the country group. These research findings hold significant implications for policy makers, economists and researchers.

Günümüzde artan çevresel sorunlar, gelir dağılımındaki adaletsizlik, kurumsal problemler ve ekonomik sıkıntılar ülkelerin sürdürülebilir kalkınma hedefleri çerçevesinde çözülmeyi bekleyen temel problemlerdir. Özellikle, artan yolsuzluklar ve gelir eşitsizliği hem gelişmiş hem de gelişmekte olan ülkelerde önemli bir sorun olmayı sürdürmektedir. Bu araştırmada gelişmiş ve gelişmekte olan 48 ülkede yolsuzluk, gelir gelir eşitsizliği ve sürdürülebilir kalkınma arasındaki ilişki incelenmiştir. Bu amaç doğrultusunda 1995-2019 arasındaki dönem panel veri analizi yöntemi kullanılarak incelenmiştir. Sabit Etkili Driscoll-Kraay tahmincisinin kullanıldığı çalışmada değişkenler arasında negatif yönlü bir ilişki bulunmuştur. Sonuçlar, artan yolsuzlukların ve gelir dağılımındaki bozulmaların, ülkelerin sürdürülebilir kalkınma hedeflerini baltaladığını göstermiştir. Bunun yanında, araştırma bulguları yolsuzlukların ekonomik kalkınmayı engellediğini savunan görüşleri ve gelir eşitsizliğinin kalkınmayı olumsuz etkilediğini savunan politik ekonomi yaklaşımını desteklemiştir.

Industrial site selection plays a critical role in shaping regional development trajectories, spatial equity, and long-term sustainability outcomes. However, limited attention has been given to how alternative policy priorities aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) influence spatial suitability patterns. This study develops a GIS-based hybrid multi-criteria decision-making framework integrating SWARA and CoCoSo methods to evaluate the site suitability of the existing Organized Industrial Zones (OIZs) under three alternative policy scenarios: Economically prioritized, environmentally prioritized, and balanced sustainability-oriented structures. A total of 26 criteria linked to SDGs 6–9, 11–13, and 15 are incorporated into the analysis. The results reveal that suitability rankings are highly sensitive to weighting configurations. The economically prioritized scenario reinforces transport accessibility and infrastructure-driven agglomeration advantages, elevating centrally connected districts, while environmentally oriented weighting substantially reshapes spatial outcomes by favoring ecologically resilient areas. The balanced scenario mitigates extreme polarization and produces more stability in rankings. These findings highlight the trade-offs between short-term economic efficiency and long-term environmental sustainability in industrial spatial planning. By explicitly modelling scenario-based policy priorities, the study provides a transparent and replicable decision-support framework that enables planners to simulate alternative development strategies and better align industrial location decisions with SDG-oriented socio-economic planning objectives.