A Case Study on Hierarchical Linear Models Applied to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): A Perspective Using the World and Brazil’s Data

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This article provides quite interesting presentation and analysis of the sustainable World through a Hierarchical Linear Model.

There are many  good points which are pointed out by the author and bring following related questions. The article is full of the models, graphs and graphics all together. It brings very high standards for the expert readers and covers also scientific background with mathematical verifications.

The scientific soundness is quite high.

There are quite few authors opinions and suggestions coming out of the mathematical basics and it brings higher scientific standards for the article quality.

Overall merit is very good, and this article is ready to be published in current form.

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

Thank you so much for your feedback on our manuscript.

We also highly appreciate your kind comments regarding it.

Best regards,

Murilo/Patrícia/Luiz

 

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear authors

I have read your research work and I consider it very interesting both from a research point of view and to use it to raise awareness of the different stakeholders related to the design of strategies that aim to achieve the objectives of sustainable development and that humanity is able to generate a new model of development to achieve them.

I consider that it is a research work that should be known and taken into account both by researchers and public policy makers who are related to economic, social and environmental sustainability.

In this sense I think it would be interesting to incorporate some bibliographical references and keywords so that this scientific article can be a reference for future research related to the Sustainable Development Goals with the aim that other researchers can have new research methodologies, hypothesis approach and data analysis that can generate more knowledge so that the SDGs can have more tools so that they can be implemented especially in countries that most need to achieve them to achieve better levels of quality in their socio-economic development.

 

I think that the introduction and conclusions should be strengthened so that researchers can better understand the importance of this field of research and the approach that the authors have taken to achieve the excellent results of their research.

I encourage you to reinforce the introduction and conclusion part so that your work can be published, honestly it is a great contribution to help meet the SDGs.  Thanks for your effort

 

Keywords:

Decision making analysis, Agenda for Sustainable Development,Toward Sustainable Economic Development

 

Papers;

Díaz-López C., Martín-Blanco C., De la Torre Bayo J.J., Rubio-Rivera B., Zamorano M. Analyzing the Scientific Evolution of the Sustainable Development Goals. Appl. Sci. 2021;11:8286. doi: 10.3390/app11188286

Martín-Blanco, C., Zamorano, M., Lizárraga, C., & Molina-Moreno, V. (2022). The Impact of COVID-19 on the Sustainable Development Goals: Achievements and Expectations. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(23), 16266.

Costanza R., Daly L., Fioramonti L., Giovannini E., Kubiszewski I., Mortensen L.F., Pickett K.E., Ragnarsdottir K.V., De Vogli R., Wilkinson R. Modelling and measuring sustainable wellbeing in connection with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Ecol. Econ. 2016;130:350–355. doi: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.07.009.

 

United Nations . Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. United Nations; New York, NY, USA: 2015. Outcome Document for the UN Summit to Adopt the Post-2015 Development Agenda: Draft for Adoption.

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

Thank you for your feedback on our manuscript.

We have taken into consideration all your points for strengthening both introduction and conclusion chapters by adding notes for a more motivational and convincing appealing about this manuscript's focus. Moreover, we have added some new key-words as well as included new references based on your suggestions.

Best regards,

Murilo/Patrícia/Luiz

Reviewer 3 Report

The paper presents in an original way a topical problem of the world, namely that of the Sustainable Development Goals, with application to the case of Brazil. The article can certainly attract the attention of the scientific community, as well as experts in the issue of sustainable development or public policies necessary to achieve national or global goals.

It seems like "Once you know hierarchies exist, you see them everywhere." (Kreft & de Leeuw, 1998, p. 1), which the authors of the article demonstrate.

The idea of using MLM seems very good, because beyond the statistical properties of the model, it allowed the authors to put and find evidence to argue for complex questions about the world and the sustainable development of the economies. The paper explores and extend the basic framework of the model, showing the versatility of these types of models, through the chosen configuration of indicators and data. Also, in addition to an analysis of the evolution of the indicators over time, it also presents estimates based exclusively on data at the national level, of Brazil.

The structure of the manuscript is clear. The writing quality is good.

  Observations (O) and suggestions (S):

O 1 Row 7, 8 in the introduction mentions as a result of the research "The HLM2 also pointed out 7 that Economic Growth is the most important variable among all considered "

S1. I suggest:

- in Section 1 Introduction a broader conceptual presentation of SDG 8 (possibly according to figure 1),

- In section 6 Conclusions, a development of ideas regarding the effects of the evolution of this objective emphasizing the economic interpretation of the statistical results.

S2: In lines 263, 264, I would mention Section 4 of this article, and subsection 4.2, because the use of the term Chapter leads to the idea of a project or books, larger works with a chapter structure, etc. Or, the term "Chapter" induce the idea for readers at a refference in another research paper

.S3: On lines 282-284, where the respectable professor Andrew Gelman is mentioned, it would probably be appropriate to cite his works, "Data Analysis Using Regression and Multilevel/Hierarchical Models" or "Advanced Regression and Multilevel Models" to mention the essence of the method and the syntax of the algorithm REML. Also, the introduction of prof. Gelman works to the bibliography.

Congratulations to the authors for their work!

 

I wish them further success and many achievements.

 

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

Thank you so much for the feedback after reviewing our manuscript.

We have taken into consideration all of your points and made the adjustments to the original article.

S1: A slightly broader conceptual statement for SDG 8 has been included to the Introduction, helping bringing emphasis on it. Also, a new paragraph detailing a future where SDG 8 is fully achieved was added.

S2: Word "Chapter" has been replaced all over the article with by Section/Subsection.

S3: Prof. Andrew Gelman's paperwork is now included and properly referred. 

Reviewer 4 Report

The article lacks references; the model and the methods are attractive, but in the title, there is no information that this research is only for one country and not globally done. So you must decide or change the title and description of the article. 

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

Thank you for your feedback after reviewing our manuscript.

We have added more references to the article and made changes to the text accordingly. Regarding its scope, the work brings a generic world perspective from what the UN addresses as such. The inclusion of Brazil brings up how its application would be to a specific country, as opposed to the previously mentioned generic one. Therefore, these are the two lines of thought that we mention in the title.

In either case, we've modified the title to enlighten our readers.

We hope these modifications will clarify your points. We are willing to improve on other points that you deem necessary as well.

Best regards,

Murilo/Patrícia/Luiz

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear authors

 

I have re-read your work and from my point of view it should be published so that it can be used by other researchers and interest groups related to the study and analysis of sustainable development.

 

I thank you for working in this field of research so that those responsible for public policies as well as companies of the productive fabric can create new instruments to help the fulfilment of the Sustainable Development Goals.

 

 I wish you all the best

 

Reviewer 4 Report

no suggestions in version 3