The tyranny of international index rankings

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Hoyland, Bjorn; Moene, Karl; Willumsen, Fredrik
• 署名单位: University of Oslo; Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO); Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO)
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2011.01.007
• 发表日期: 2012
• 页码: 1-14
• 关键词: International indexes; ranking; latent variables

摘要

International index rankings are popular, but perhaps too persuasive. They emphasize country differences where similarity is the dominant feature. Rankings based on Doing Business, the Human Development Index and Freedom House can be misleading, not because of wrong indicators, but because the estimation of the scores ignores inherent uncertainty. Re-estimated with a method that captures this uncertainty, it becomes clear that ranking every adjacent country is a rather courageous activity. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.