Growth without Governance

Kaufmann, Daniel ; Kraay, Aart

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ACCOUNTABILITY MEASURE;    AGGREGATE GOVERNANCE;    AGGREGATE GOVERNANCE INDICATOR;    AGGREGATE GOVERNANCE INDICATORS;    AGGREGATE INDICATORS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-2928
RP-ID  :  WPS2928

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

It is well known that there is a strongpositive correlation between per capita incomes and thequality of governance across countries. the authors proposean empirical strategy that allows separation of thiscorrelation into (1) a strong positive causal effect runningfrom better governance to higher per capita incomes, and,perhaps surprisingly at first, (2) a weak and even negativecausal effect running in the opposite direction from percapita incomes to governance. The first result confirmsexisting evidence on the importance of good governance foreconomic development. The second result is new and suggeststhe absence of a "virtuous circle" in which higherincomes lead to further improvements in governance. Thismotivates the authors' choice of title, "GrowthWithout Governance." They document this evidence usinga newly updated set of worldwide governance-indicatorscovering 175 countries for the period 2000-01, and use theresults to interpret the relationship between incomes andgovernance focusing on the Latin America and Caribbeanregion-within a worldwide empirical context. Finally, theauthors speculate about the potential importance of eliteinfluence and state capture in accounting for the surprisingnegative effects of per capita incomes on governance,present some evidence on such capture in some Latin Americancountries, and suggest priorities for actions to improvegovernance when such pernicious elite influence shapespublic policy.