A COMPOSITE CUSTOMS SERVICE EFFICIENCY INDEX WITH HYBRID AHP-ENTROPY WEIGHTING: EVIDENCE FROM HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCE IMPORTS IN UZBEKISTAN (2016-2025)
Keywords:
customs service, efficiency, composite index, analytic hierarchy process, entropy weights, target-based normalisation, trade facilitation, Logistics Performance Index, household appliances, UzbekistanAbstract
Customs administrations are usually judged by the revenue they collect, although traders care just as much about clearance time and the quality of digital services. The article proposes a composite Customs Service Efficiency Index (CSEI) that measures customs performance in four blocks at once: fiscal results, time and speed, control quality and risk, and digital service. The aim is to link the assessment of the customs service to the numerical targets of national strategies and to test the index on Uzbek data for 2016-2025. Eight indicators were normalised to the targets of Decrees PF-57 and PF-174 instead of the sample minimum and maximum, so the index shows how far the administration is from its own goals. Indicator weights combine expert weights from the analytic hierarchy process (consistency ratio 0.004) with entropy weights that reflect the observed variability of the data. In Uzbekistan the index rose from 0.374 in 2016 to 0.718 in 2025 and moved from the critical to the medium level. However, 93.9% of the increase came from the fiscal block. The time and speed block rose from 0.540 in 2020 to 0.727, while the digital service block fell from 0.471 in 2018 to 0.396 and remained the weakest. The ranking of years is robust to the weighting scheme (Spearman's ρ = 0.988). The results suggest that the composite value should be published together with its four block indices and that each block needs a target of its own. Implications are drawn for the control of household appliance imports, a segment exposed to undervaluation risk.
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