Publication: Governance Matters VI : Aggregate and Individual Governance Indicators, 1996-2006
Date
2007-07
ISSN
Published
2007-07
Author(s)
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
nongovernmental organization experts, as well as thousands
of citizen and firm survey respondents worldwide. The paper
also explicitly reports the margins of error accompanying
each country estimate. These reflect the inherent
difficulties in measuring governance using any kind of data.
It finds 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. The decade-long aggregate
indicators, together with the disaggregated individual
indicators, are available in a newly-redesigned website at www.govindicators.org.
Citation
“Kaufmann, Daniel; Kraay, Aart; Mastruzzi, Massimo. 2007. Governance Matters VI : Aggregate and Individual Governance Indicators, 1996-2006. Policy Research Working Paper; No. 4280. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/7473 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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