Document Abstract
Published:
2007
Governance matters V: aggregate and individual governance indicators for 1996-2006
Worldwide Governance Indicators (GWI) update 2006
This paper presents the latest update of the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) research project.They cover 212 countries and territories for 1996, 1998, 2000, and annually for 2002-2006.The indicators measure six dimensions of governance:
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.
The authors say that despite the margin of error accompanying each country estimate, which reflect the inherent difficulties in measuring governance using any kind of data, WGI permit meaningful cross-country comparisons as well as monitoring progress.
Assessing trends over time, the authors find that nearly 30 percent of countries experience significant changes over the period 1998-2006 in at least one of the six indicators (roughly evenly divided between significant improvements and deteriorations).
This highlights the fact that governance can and does change even over relatively short periods such as a decade. The authors say that this should both provide encouragement to reformers seeking to improve governance, as well as warn against complacency in other cases as sharp deteriorations in governance are possible.
- Voice and accountability,
- political stability and absence of violence,
- government effectiveness,
- regulatory quality,
- rule of law,
- 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.
The authors say that despite the margin of error accompanying each country estimate, which reflect the inherent difficulties in measuring governance using any kind of data, WGI permit meaningful cross-country comparisons as well as monitoring progress.
Assessing trends over time, the authors find that nearly 30 percent of countries experience significant changes over the period 1998-2006 in at least one of the six indicators (roughly evenly divided between significant improvements and deteriorations).
This highlights the fact that governance can and does change even over relatively short periods such as a decade. The authors say that this should both provide encouragement to reformers seeking to improve governance, as well as warn against complacency in other cases as sharp deteriorations in governance are possible.
