Governance Indicators : Where Are We, Where Should We Be Going?

Kaufmann, Daniel ; Kraay, Aart

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ABUSES;    ACCESS TO INFORMATION;    AGGREGATE GOVERNANCE;    AGGREGATE GOVERNANCE INDICATORS;    AGGREGATE INDICATOR;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-4370
RP-ID  :  WPS4370

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Scholars, policymakers, aid donors, andaid recipients acknowledge the importance of good governancefor development.This understanding has spurred an intenseinterest in more refined, nuanced, and policy-relevantindicators of governance.In this paper we review progressto date in the area of measuring governance, using a simpleframework of analysis focusing on two key questions: (i)what do we measure? and, (ii) whose views do we rely on?For the former question, we distinguish between indicatorsmeasuring formal laws or rules 'on the books', andindicators that measure the practical application oroutcomes of these rules 'on the ground', callingattention to the strengths and weaknesses of both types ofindicators as well as the complementarities between them.For the latter question, we distinguish between experts andsurvey respondents on whose views governance assessments arebased, again highlighting their advantages, disadvantages,and complementarities.We also review the merits ofaggregate as opposed to individual governance indicators.We conclude with some simple principles to guide therefinement of existing governance indicators and thedevelopment of future indicators.We emphasize the need to:transparently disclose and account for the margins of errorin all indicators; draw from a diversity of indicators andexploit complementarities among them; submit all indicatorsto rigorous public and academic scrutiny; and, in light ofthe lessons of over a decade of existing indicators, to berealistic in the expectations of future indicators.