Response to 'What Do the Worldwide Governance Indicators Measure?'

Response to 'What Do the Worldwide Governance Indicators Measure?'

Thomas (2009) dismisses the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) as an 'elaborate and unsupported hypothesis' because of the failure to demonstrate the 'construct validity' of these indicators. We argue that 'construct validity' is not a useful tool to assess the merit...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Kaufmann, Daniel, Kraay, Aart, Mastruzzi, Massimo
Format: Journal Article
Language:EN
Published: 2012
Subjects:
Index Numbers and Aggregation
leading indicators C430
Models of Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior D720
Structure, Scope, and Performance of Government H110
Formal and Informal Sectors
Shadow Economy
Institutional Arrangements O170
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5897
Description
Summary:Thomas (2009) dismisses the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) as an 'elaborate and unsupported hypothesis' because of the failure to demonstrate the 'construct validity' of these indicators. We argue that 'construct validity' is not a useful tool to assess the merits of the WGI, and even if it were, Thomas provides no evidence of any practical consequences of failure to meet the criteria of construct validity.

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