Gaming country rankings: Consultancies as knowledge brokers for global benchmarks

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Broome, Andre
• 署名单位: University of Warwick
• 刊物名称: PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-3298
• DOI: 10.1111/padm.12809
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 554-570
• 关键词: POWER; governance; POLITICS; WORLD; rise

摘要

This article explores how for-profit consultancies mediate knowledge about global benchmarks in developing countries. Drawing on the case of the Ease of Doing Business rankings, published annually by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation between 2005 and 2019, it examines the role consultancies play as knowledge brokers connecting global benchmarks produced by intergovernmental organizations to regulatory reform programs undertaken by national public administrations. The article shows how consultancies contracted to implement business enabling environment projects by the United States Agency for International Development advised national policymakers on how to design reforms to improve their country's ranking status. Lending weight to criticisms that shifts in country rankings are misleading as an indicator of changes in regulatory quality, the findings suggest that consultancies have leveraged benchmarks to perpetuate demand for their own expertise rather than to improve the evidence base for aid allocation and the evaluation of development projects.