Quality of Government: What You Get

Abstract

In development policy, international organizations have shifted their focus to the importance of good governance and sound institutions. The theory behind this is that only with a high quality of government (QoG) can a country reap the benefits of economic growth and social development. We review the research behind this policy shift and offer a first benchmark statistical analysis. The first section contains a review of the conceptual discussion of what QoG means. Second, we present four salient approaches pertaining to the outcomes of QoG: the debates concerning QoG and democracy, economic growth, corruption, and the rule of law. The third section uses insights gained from these debates to focus on the policy outcomes of QoG—its effects on social well-being, public health, and environmental sustainability. We conclude by discussing possible pitfalls in future research on QoG and development.

Context, law and reinvestment decisions: Why the transitional periphery differs from other post-state socialist economies

“…Quality of government (Holmberg, Rothstein, & Nasiritousi, 2009) and specifically 'good governance within each country' is vital in aiding development and fostering economic growth (United Nations, 2000:13). Given that institutions provide the context within which the firm's transactions take place, it is to be expected that a number of scholars have noted the importance of positive and robust host government institutions (Henisz, 2000;Meyer, 2001).…”

The Role of Risk Perception and Collaborative Management in Explaining Stringent Municipal Regulations - The Israeli Air Pollution Case Study

“…For example, Holmberg et al suggest a parallel approach to the complex relationship between quality of government and economic growth [51] they claim that although significant relationships can be found between QoG and economic growth, care should be taken in interpreting these results. They suggest that one interpretation of the result could be that the causality between economic growth and QoG resembles a "virtuous circle" in which feedback mechanisms play an important role.…”

Weberian Bureaucracy and Corruption Prevention

“…There is a long list of explanations for corruption levels and the quality of public institutions resorting to differences in cultural values, economic development or political institutions (for an overview see Holmberg, Rothstein & Nasiritousi 2009). In the empirical section we will include one indicator from each of these as control variables.…”

“…This is not only true for developing countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia, but also for many European democracies such as Italy and Greece (for an overview see Holmberg, Rothstein & Nasiritousi 2009). In the academic field of Public Administration and in national debates in several countries it has been suggested that corruption can be curbed by fostering a traditional organization of public administration, guaranteeing lifelong careers, formalizing recruitments, and introducing strong legal protection for civil servants.…”

“…For example, factors related to corruption seem to be more decisive than traditional variables in economics for explaining sustained economic growth (Hall & Jones 1999;Mauro 1995;Rodrik, Subramanian & Trebbi 2004). In addition, corruption has dramatic effects on social well-being as it contributes to worse educational attainment, lower levels of health and happiness, worse protection of the environment, impoverishment of social and political trust and higher levels of violence (Holmberg, Rothstein & Nasiritousi 2009). …”