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Thomas, M. A.: What do the worldwide governance indicators measure?. - In: The European Journal of Development Research. - 22 (February 2010) 1. - S. 31-54

This article presents estimates of six dimensions of governance for 199 countries and territories for 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002 developed in the context of an ongoing project to measure governance across countries. Section one describes the data used in developing this round of the governance indicators, which include several new sources. Data sources used in the earlier studies were updated forward to 2002 and backward to 1996, and previously estimated indicators for 1998 and 2000were revised to reflect the new data. The aggregation procedure, described in section two, provides not only estimates of governance for each country but also measures of the precision or reliability of these estimates. Although the new data have improved the precision of the governance indicators, the margins of error remain large relative to the units in which governance is measured, so that comparisons across countries and especially over time should be made with caution.

Economic shocks and crises typically lead to a sharp increase in government expenditure arrears with corrosive effects on the economy. In order to assess the evolution of government expenditure arrears during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, the World Bank collected information on public expenditure arrears in client countries in June 2020. The results of this initial data collection exercise are reported in an MTI Insight Note (An Overview of the Potential Impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Crisis on the Accumulation of government Expenditure Arrears), which also discusses the definition of government expenditure arrears, measurement and reporting issues, the main drivers and economic consequences of arrears accumulation, and options for preventing and managing arrears accumulation. This note presents an update based on information available by February 2021.

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic introduced tremendous fiscal pressures for many countries, requiring additional spending to mitigate the health, economic, and social impacts of the pandemic while government revenues are falling. Governments are addressing these fiscal pressures through a range of measures, including additional borrowing and expenditure adjustments. In environments where fiscal space is tight and public expenditure management is weak, the accumulation of government expenditure arrears is likely. This note presents some early data on the impact of these fiscal pressures on government arrears in low income countries.