Measuring Institutions—Indicators of Political and Economic Institutions in Namibia: 1884–2008

Zaaruka,

doi:10.5325/jdevepers.1.1-2.0096

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Using specific weights for certain variables can be rather judgemental but stating that all subvariables are equally important can be misleading too. Some studies try to account for this by using factor analysis or principal component analysis (e.g., Zaaruka et al, 2011).…”

Section: Methodology: Mapping Laws To Numbersmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Measuring Unmeasurable: How to Map Laws to Numbers Using Leximetrics

Kholodilin

Pfeiffer

2021

SSRN Journal

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As the institutional literature convincingly shows, socioeconomic phenomena are to a large extent shaped by the formal institutions, that is, legal acts (laws and ordinances). However, the latter are formulated in a specific language that is difficult to understand, let alone to measure. However, since the early 1990s, a whole branch of economic analysis of governmental regulations has evolved. It is known as leximetrics, i.e., the measuring of laws. It covers a wide range of economic sectors, such as financial, labor, housing, and product markets, among others. The two most popular methods are codification and surveys. Under the first method, the legal texts are analyzed, relevant provisions extracted, and numeric values assigned depending on these provisions. Under the surveys method, local experts are asked to provide their assessment of currently valid legal provisions and sometimes also their enforcement. In both cases, the legal texts are mapped onto real-valued indices with the objective of gauging the intensity of governmental regulations. These indices can be and are successfully used to explain the economic phenomena. This study provides a comprehensive overview of the leximetric literature and demonstrates interdependences between different types of governmental regulations.

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Section: Methodology: Mapping Laws To Numbersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Zaaruka et al (2011) measure institutions in Namibia from 1884 through 2008. They employ several leximetric indicators, e.g., for property rights, political rights, civil liberties, and judicial independence, which correlate with other institution measures, like the Freedom in the World Index.…”

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confidence: 99%

Measuring Unmeasurable: How to Map Laws to Numbers Using Leximetrics

Kholodilin

Pfeiffer

2021

SSRN Journal

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“…Using the six indicators, the performance of each African country the four companies entered between 1996 and 2015 was captured in Tables . These indicators are considered to be some of the most empirically robust and comprehensive measures of governance and have been widely used by scholars, including Delbecque, Méjean, and Patureau (); Du (); and Zaaruka and Fedderke ().…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Institutions and the location strategies of South African firms in Africa

White

Kitimbo

Rees

2018

Thunderbird Intl Bus Rev

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This study explores the influence of institutions on the location strategies of firms in Africa.Specifically, the research examines the effect of governance infrastructure, a country's overall public institutions and policies, on the expansion strategies of three South African firms as they entered selected African countries between 1996 and 2015. These firms include SABMiller, MTN, and Massmart. The study makes use of structured interviews with senior directors of the three firms, mini case studies, and the World Bank's Worldwide Global Governance Indicators, in an effort to understand the impact of institutions, or lack thereof, on these companies' location choices. Results suggest that by and large, the quality of formal institutions did not have a direct effect on the location decisions of the three firms in this study, and that these firms found ways to mitigate the so-called institutional voids.

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Evolution and Measurement of Institutions in Kenya

Letete¹,

Sarr²

2017

Journal of Development Perspectives

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This article presents the de jure political and economic institutional indicators for Kenya for the period 1884–2010, and discusses their evolution over time. The construction of these indicators is based on the leximetric framework proposed by Fedderke et al. (2001), which relies on the formal legislative history that governs immovable property, political rights, and civil liberties. In doing so, we are able to capture the notion of permanency that characterizes institutions according to Douglass North. We provide a narrative that demonstrates how existing political and economic rights in Kenya were largely shaped by the legal framework introduced by the British settlers since 1884. These laws were initially designed to create a settler economy in order to recoup the heavy investments cost of the Uganda railway. To this end, the colonial authorities promoted a liberal freehold property rights system for the benefit of the settlers while curtailing the indigenous populations’ basic civil liberties and customary rights to land. We correlate these newly constructed indexes with conventional institutional indicators for overlapping periods. Overall, we find high unconditional correlations, which suggests that our indicators may be fairly reliable even in the long run (126 years).

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Measuring Institutions—Indicators of Political and Economic Institutions in Namibia: 1884–2008

Cited by 3 publications

References 44 publications

Measuring Unmeasurable: How to Map Laws to Numbers Using Leximetrics

Measuring Unmeasurable: How to Map Laws to Numbers Using Leximetrics

Institutions and the location strategies of South African firms in Africa

Evolution and Measurement of Institutions in Kenya

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