Governance Matters VI: Governance Indicators for 1996-2006

94 Pages Posted: 11 Jul 2007

See all articles by Daniel Kaufmann

Daniel Kaufmann

Results for Development; The University of the Philippines Diliman; The Brookings Institution

Aart Kraay

World Bank - Development Research Group (DECRG)

Massimo Mastruzzi

World Bank Institute

Date Written: July 2007

Abstract

This paper reports on the latest update of the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) research project, covering 212 countries and territories and measuring six dimensions of governance between 1996 and 2006: Voice and Accountability, Political Stability and Absence of Violence, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, Rule of Law, and Control of Corruption. This latest set of aggregate indicators, are based on hundreds of specific and disaggregated individual variables measuring various dimensions of governance, taken from 33 data sources provided by 30 different organizations. The data reflect the views on governance of public sector, private sector and NGO experts, as well as thousands of citizen and firm survey respondents worldwide. We also explicitly report the margins of error accompanying each country estimate. These reflect the inherent difficulties in measuring governance using any kind of data. We find that even after taking margins of error into account, the WGI permit meaningful cross-country comparisons as well as monitoring progress over time. In less than a decade, a substantial number of countries exhibit statistically significant improvements in at least one dimension of governance, while other countries exhibit deterioration in some dimensions.

Keywords: governance, indicators, voice, accountability, corruption, rule of law, government, margins of error, millennium challenge account, political stability, transparency

JEL Classification: E00,H00,O10,C1,C3,C42,C43,D8,HO,H4,K0,K2,K4

Suggested Citation

Kaufmann, Daniel and Kraay, Aart and Mastruzzi, Massimo, Governance Matters VI: Governance Indicators for 1996-2006 (July 2007). World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 4280, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=999979

Daniel Kaufmann (Contact Author)

Results for Development ( email )

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HOME PAGE: http://https://r4d.org/about/our-team/daniel-kaufmann/

The University of the Philippines Diliman ( email )

Manila
Philippines

The Brookings Institution ( email )

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Washington, DC 20036
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HOME PAGE: http://www.brookings.edu/experts/kaufmannd

Aart Kraay

World Bank - Development Research Group (DECRG) ( email )

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Washington, DC 20433
United States
202-473-5756 (Phone)
202-522-3518 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://econ.worldbank.org/staff/akraay

Massimo Mastruzzi

World Bank Institute ( email )

1818 H Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20433
United States

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