Transparency is widely seen as essential for accountability, but it is multi-dimensional and hard to measure. This research isolates one clear dimension: the state's collection and public dissemination of aggregate data, and develops a new objective index to capture it.
📊 How the HRV Index Was Constructed
- An item response model treats transparency as a latent predictor of whether governments report specific data items to the World Bank's World Development Indicators (WDI).
- The resulting HRV index is based on objective reporting behavior rather than expert judgments.
🧾 What the Index Covers
- Country-year coverage: 125 countries from 1980 to 2010.
- The underlying data are reports submitted to the WDI that have passed the World Bank's quality-control assessment, ensuring the index reflects dissemination of credible content.
🔁 How This Differs From Other Measures
- Unlike Freedom House-style measures, the HRV index does not rely on subjective expert evaluations.
- Unlike raw newspaper circulation figures, HRV captures the dissemination of vetted, official statistics rather than general information reach.
🔍 Validation Against Media and Governance Indicators
- In a validation exercise, HRV outperforms newspaper circulation as a predictor of two ICRG governance measures: Law and Order and Bureaucratic Quality—especially in autocratic regimes.
- HRV predicts corruption about as well as newspaper circulation does.
❗ Why This Matters
- Findings indicate that data dissemination is a distinct and politically relevant form of transparency with measurable links to governance outcomes.
- The HRV index provides a complementary, objective tool for scholars and policymakers interested in how official data reporting relates to institutional quality.
