A Comparison of Country Performances with Sovereign Credit Ratings using the TOPSIS Model

Abstract

This study aims to rank 66 countries according to their macroeconomic and governance performance to compare that rating with the credit ratings for the countries. Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) model is based on Multi Criteria Decision Making approach was used to compare the credit ratings of 66 developed and developing countries assigned by (Standard and Poor's) S & P in July 2011 with the governance and macroeconomic data for the year 2010. The results show that the ranking according to credit ratings assigned by S&P in 2011 is open to complaints of developing countries when evaluated only according to macroeconomic performance. However, when the rankings consider governance variables, the results are very closely matched with the ranking according to the credit rating scores.