The Quality of Government Dataset, version 20Dec13

Abstract

One aim of the QoG Institute is to make publicly available cross-national comparative data on QoG and its correlates. To accomplish this objective we have compiled both a cross-sectional dataset with global coverage pertaining to the year 2009 (or the closest year available), and a cross-sectional time-series dataset with global coverage spanning the time period 1946–2012. The datasets draw on a number of freely available cross-sectional data sources, including aggregated individual-level data.

The QoG standard dataset are available in both a time-series (TS) version and a cross-section (CS) version. In the TS set we have data from 1946 to 2012 and the unit of analysis is country-year (e.g. Sweden-1946, Sweden-1947 and so on). In the CS dataset we have data from and around 2009. Simply put we have included data from 2009, if there was no data for that particular year on a variable, we have taken data from the year after and if there was no data for that year we have taken data from the year before 2009, up to +/- 3 years.