Prepare your indicators: economics imperialism on the shores of law and development

Abstract

This article explores the influence of economics on the demand for, and deployment of, indicators in the context of the World Bank's investment climate campaign. This campaign is characterised by an emphasis on marketisation, mathematisation and quantification, which are respectively the normative, analytical and empirical approaches of choice in mainstream economics. The article concludes that economics generally, and indicators in particular, have brought a certain discipline and energy to the field of law and development. But this 'progress' has often been at the expense of non-economic values and interests, and even of our ability to mourn their loss.

The poverty of numbers: reflections on the legitimacy of global development indicators

“…The third basis for claims concerning a shared global metric of development is the most obvious and the most obviously flawed: the assumption that concepts, such as corruption or empowerment, are themselves globally valid (Kerry-Pessaris, 2011). In the electrification study above, how empowerment was envisaged by the women in the communities studied differed markedly: in the community studied in Kenya, empowerment was viewed as material improvement; in India, it was political, understood as genuine participation in decision-making within the community.…”

Transnational Legal Indicators: The Missing Link in a New Era of Law and Development

“…States needed to ensure good 'fundamentals' at the local level to be competitive in the global economy. Perry Kessaris has rightly noted that legal systems became a component of 'investment climate' -"a 'portmanteau phrase' which lumps together law, politics, economy and infrastructure of a given national or sub-national region" 31 . Moreover, if the rule of law was the bottom line of a good legal investment climate, in practice, legal reforms extend well beyond its scope.…”

Differentiating and connecting indicators: the quality and performance of law in the World Bank's Doing Business Project

“…The TLIs often suffer from construction problems, because they rely on inaccurate survey strategies and unjustified data-aggregation methods (Amariles and Mclachlan, 2018; Davis and Kruse, 2007). They also suffer from content problems, demonstrating a narrow scope, using ‘strictly functionalist and instrumental’ criteria (Khartchenko-Dorbec et al ., 2006) and ‘obsessing’ over legal efficiency (Perry-Kessaris, 2011, p. 507). Such important credibility problems in the TLIs cast serious doubt on their political legitimacy and functionality as well.…”

“…To law-makers especially in the developing economies, they provide a ‘more optimistic view’ on the positive effects of legal reform (Davis, 2014). To the WB itself, they provide a measure to evaluate countries based on its own standards of ‘good investment climate’ and to evaluate its own efforts to improve this climate (Perry-Kessaris, 2011).…”