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Home»Document Library»Evaluating governance indexes: Critical and less critical questions

Evaluating governance indexes: Critical and less critical questions

Library
Rachel M. Gisselquist
2013

Summary

Recent years have seen a proliferation of ‘composite indicators’ or ‘indexes’ of governance, but some are better tools than others and some are better suited to certain purposes than others. This paper provides a framework of ten questions to help users and producers of governance indexes to evaluate them and consider key components of index design. The paper argues that:

  • more attention should be paid to questions about concept formation, content validity, reliability, replicability, robustness, and the relevance of particular measures to underlying research questions; and
  • less attention should be paid to questions about descriptive complexity, theoretical fit, the precision of estimates, and correct weighting.

The framework builds both on a review of the literature, and on three years of research in practice, specifically the author’s experience in working with Robert I. Rotberg to design and co-author the first two editions of the Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG).

Source

Gisselquist, R. M. (2013). Evaluating governance indexes: Critical and less critical questions. WIDER Working Paper 2013/068. UNU-WIDER.

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Outputs supported by DFID are © DFID Crown Copyright 2018; outputs supported by the Australian Government are © Australian Government 2018; and outputs supported by the European Commission are © European Union 2018

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