RESEARCH ON YOUNG DEMOCRACIES, AND MORE, IN NEW ISSUE OF THE RESEARCH
DIGEST

In a new article in this quarter´s issue of the Research Digest,
Philip Keefer shows that in poor democracies, measures of governance,
schooling, infrastructure, government spending as a fraction of
national income, and the business climate are generally about the
same as or worse than those in poor non-democracies. This finding is
inconsistent with the common assumption that competitive elections
should make politicians notably more responsive to the concerns of
the general public. Keefer also presents new evidence showing that
countries with fewer continuous years of competitive elections are
more reluctant to provide public goods (education, access to
information, high-quality bureaucracies, the rule of law), more
enthusiastic about private goods (jobs in the public sector, pork
barrel infrastructure), and less restrained in the exercise of rent
seeking and corruption. The findings of this research point to the
importance of reforms that increase political credibility policies to
increase publicly available information about policy outcomes, and to
relax government controls on information.

Research Digest downloadable here:
http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/0,,contentMDK:2100831
7~ pagePK:64165401~piPK:64165026~theSitePK:469372,00.html


WORLDWIDE GOVERNANCE INDICATORS STUDY BY THE WORLD BANK

Countries around the world, including some of the poorest in Africa,
have made significant progress in improving governance and fighting
corruption over the decade, the new Worldwide Governance Indicators
(WGI) study by the World Bank Institute and the World Bank
Development Economics Vice Presidency shows. Significant improvements
in governance over the past decade occurred in countries as diverse
as Indonesia, Tajikistan, Serbia, and Slovakia. And in Africa in
particular, countries such as Niger, Sierra Leone, Angola, Democratic
Republic of Congo, Liberia, Tanzania, and Rwanda showed significant
improvements in some dimensions of governance since 1998. Even over
the relatively short period since 2002, there have been big
improvements in some aspects of governance in countries such as
Liberia, Angola, Argentina, and Georgia.

For the WGI website, go here:
http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi2007/
For the report, go here:
http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi2007/pdf/booklet_decade_of_mea
suring_governance.pdf



Check out this collection of links for more on governance for
development.

Transparency International www.transparency.org

Governance Knowledge Initiative with the Development Gateway
Foundation http://topics.developmentgateway.org/governance

The Knowledge Networks Agency (KNA) for the Middle East and North
Africa (MENA) www.worldbank.org/wbi/knamena

Ethics World www.ethicsworld.org