Aart Kraay

TL;DR: This article revisited four recent cross-country empirical studies on the effects of inequality on growth and found that the internal instruments relied on by this estimator are weak, and that weak instrument-consistent confidence sets for the effect of inequalities on growth include a wide range of positive and negative values.

TL;DR: This paper used data from more than 6,000 World Bank projects evaluated between 1983 and 2009 to investigate macro and micro correlates of project outcomes, finding that country-level"macro"measures of the quality of policies and institutions are very strongly correlated with project outcomes.

TL;DR: Random response questions have been used as a survey technique to elicit candid responses to sensitive questions for half a century, despite relatively little evidence as to their effectiveness in doing so.

Abstract: Six dimensions of governance are estimated covering 199 countries and territories for four periods: 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002. The indicators are based on several hundred individual variables measuring perceptions of governance drawn from 25 data sources constructed by 18 organizations. These individual measures are assigned to categories capturing key dimensions of governance. An unobserved-components model is used to construct six aggregate governance indicators in each of the four periods. Point estimates of the dimensions of governance are provided as well as the margins of errors for each country for the four periods. Methodological issues are also addressed, including tests for potential biases, and the interpretation and use of the data, given the estimated margins of errors for the indicators. The data and a Web-based graphical interface are available online at . www.worldbank.org/wbi/governance/govdata2002/index.html