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Governance Indicators and the Level of Analysis Problem: Empirical Findings from South America

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  • Gingerich, Daniel W.

Abstract

Studies of the link between state capacity and development often utilize national-level governance indicators to explain fine-grained development outcomes. As capacity in some bureaucratic agencies matters more for these outcomes than capacity in others, this work proxies for capacity within the set of relevant agencies by using a measure of ‘mean’ capacity across all agencies in a polity. This practice is problematic for two reasons: (1) within-country, cross-agency diversity in capacity often overwhelms the variation encountered across public sectors considered in their entireties; (2) national-level reputations for capacity are not particularly informative about differences in capacity in functionally equivalent agencies in different countries. The article draws on the author's survey of public employees in Bolivia, Brazil and Chile to establish these points.

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  • Gingerich, Daniel W., 2013. "Governance Indicators and the Level of Analysis Problem: Empirical Findings from South America," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(3), pages 505-540, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:bjposi:v:43:y:2013:i:03:p:505-540_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Breinlich, Holger & Ottaviano, Gianmarco I.P. & Temple, Jonathan R.W., 2014. "Regional Growth and Regional Decline," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 4, pages 683-779, Elsevier.
    2. Elisabetta Reginato & Isabella Fadda & Paola Paglietti & Aldo Pavan, 2021. "Informal Payments and Performance in the Health Care Sector: Possible Relationships in a Sub-National Perspective," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 15(3), pages 126-126, July.
    3. repec:esx:essedp:729 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Bellofatto, Antonio Andrés & Besfamille, Martín, 2018. "Regional state capacity and the optimal degree of fiscal decentralization," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 225-243.
    5. Michener, Gregory, 2015. "Policy Evaluation via Composite Indexes: Qualitative Lessons from International Transparency Policy Indexes," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 184-196.
    6. Gisselquist, Rachel M., 2013. "Evaluating Governance Indexes: Critical and Less Critical Questions," WIDER Working Paper Series 068, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. Rachel M. Gisselquist, 2013. "Evaluating Governance Indexes: Critical and Less Critical Questions," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2013-068, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    8. Noort, S., 2018. "The Importance of E ective States: State Capacity and Economic Development," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1821, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    9. Berliner, Daniel & Greenleaf, Anne & Lake, Milli & Noveck, Jennifer, 2015. "Building Capacity, Building Rights? State Capacity and Labor Rights in Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 127-139.

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