44445 MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA JUNE, 2008 GOVERNANCE NEWS & NOTES VOLUME 2, ISSUE 2 A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER IN THIS ISSUE: he noted Prussian military strategist Carl von Clausewitz once A Note from the famously quipped, "everything in war is very simple, but the simplest Publisher........................ 1 thing is often difficult." The same could certainly be said about institutional economics and the quest to understand the relationship On Governance and between ideas such as good governance and the rule of law with Growth..........................2 economic growth and development. This issue of Governance News & Notes reflects upon this difficult and complicated issue. The question is Mustapha K. Nabli Interview analytically interesting and remains far from being resolved, although a ....................................4 great deal of progress has been made in recent years. Ritva Reinikka: New Director We are fortunate in being able to feature the reflections of one of our own in the World Bank's MENA on this issue, Mustapha Nabli. In the following interview, he brings to Region...........................6 bear his decades of experience as an academic, senior government official and international civil servant on the question of good The Governance for governance for development in the MENA region. Mr. Nabli joined the Development Initiative: World Bank in 1997 after a long and distinguished career in Tunisia, Achievements and Future where he served as Minister of Economic Development and Minister of Directions.......................8 Planning and Regional Development, Chairman of the Tunis Stock Exchange, and a professor of economics at the Faculté de Droit et des Upcoming Events and Sciences Politiques et Economiques de Tunis. Activities........................10 This edition of Governance News & Notes is also marked by a transition. Noteworthy After serving for nearly a decade, Mustapha Nabli recently left his post Links..................................10 as Chief Economist and Director of the Bank's Middle East and North Africa Social and Economic Division (MNSED) for a new role as Senior Advisor in the Bank's Development Economics Vice Presidency. This new position will allow him more latitude to probe these issues carefully, and he recently oversaw the conduct of a major conference on the empirics of governance at Bank Headquarters in Washington. The position of Director MNSED has been filled by Ritva Reinikka, whose background and interests are discussed in greater detail below. Ms. Reinikka comes to the region having made major intellectual and practical contributions to the quest for improved front-line service delivery in developing countries. While scholars work hard to advance our knowledge and understanding of the empirical and analytic linkages between governance and development, many others--including a variety of bilateral and multilateral donors and development institutions--are grappling with these issues on a daily basis. UNDP and OECD have recently launched a major initiative, Good Governance for Development in the Arab Countries (GfD) Initiative, predicated upon the assumption that improvements in MENA institutions will have an important impact upon the region's overall development trajectory. In this edition, Wassim Harb and Arkan El Seblani of UNDP's Program on Governance in the Arab Region (POGAR) discuss this important cross-country effort. GOVERNANCE NEWS & NOTES Page 2 VOL. 2, ISSUE 1 ON GOVERNANCE AND GROWTH The effort to unbundle and better understand these relationships has been hampered by a BY ROBERT P. BESCHEL number of challenges. Scholars such as Melissa Thomas and Thomas Carothers have noted In his Nobel Prize conceptual and definitional problems in lecture in 1993, developing testable hypotheses and constructing Douglass North valid indicators. Many indices purporting to put the case for measure topics such as the "rule of law" are governance and composites that are weighted in ways that are growth succinctly occasionally arbitrary, which may in turn cast when he stated, doubt upon what the indicator itself is "institutions form measuring. Almost always, these efforts are the incentive structure of a society and the divorced from a broader and more political and economic institutions, in comprehensive theoretical framework. consequence, are the underlying determinant of (Kaufmann and others would reply that the lack economic performance." Subsequently, a host of an overarching, unified theory has not of econometric analyses have backed up what prevented work from moving forward in a wide for many is intuitively obvious--there is a close variety of disciplines, from physics to correlation between levels of economic wealth economics.) and development and the quality of public institutions, with the latter measured along numerous dimensions. The attached graphs, cited from Daniel Kaufmann and Art Kraay's path breaking work on this topic, neatly illustrate this point. But as any first year graduate student would affirm, correlation does not prove causality. It could very well be that improvements in governance improve the quality of service delivery and create a regulatory environment where private sector growth can flourish, thereby raising GDP. Or it could be that, as countries grow richer, they are able to devote more resources to strengthening public institutions, so the quality of their governance improves. It could be that both the wealth of We simply do not know what elements of more nations and the quality of their institutions are narrow concepts such as "rule of law" are most influenced by other dynamics, such as the important, let alone the broader notions of emergence of a middle class that demands better governance. Does rule of law apply to the basic services, so that they rise together in a fashion legal system itself or its supporting regulations, that appears to be related but in fact is not. Or the functioning of the police and judiciary, finally, it could be that, as countries grow richer, access to justice, the speed or predictability of perceptions of the quality of governance may judicial decision-making, the ability to improve even if the reality does not. ultimately enforce contracts, the availability of GOVERNANCE NEWS & NOTES Page 3 VOL. 2, ISSUE 1 alternative means for dispute resolution, etc.? the rule of law; control of corruption; regulatory How important are each of these component quality; government effectiveness and political factors, and how do they interact in creating an stability are positively correlated with foreign effective legal system? Furthermore, there is direct investment, which is in turn correlated often a gap between the existence of formal with increased GDP growth. Other studies have institutions, which can be quite sensible and focused on the domestic distributional impacts appropriately designed on paper, and how these of corruption, noting that it increases income institutions actually function in practice. inequality and poverty through lower economic Measuring such gaps can be a difficult and growth, biased tax systems favoring the rich and occasionally contentious exercise. well-connected; poor targeting of social programs; lower social spending; unequal access Others have criticized the methodologies behind to education; and a higher risk in investment efforts to measure the quality of governance and decisions of the poor. link it to economic growth. A major OECD study by Christiane Arndt and Charles Oman noted a number of methodological challenges, including the likelihood of correlation between different data sources from which composite indicators are constructed; the lack of comparability over time (contrary to popular perceptions, indices such as Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index are created separately each year, so country movement up and down the index is analytically meaningless); and potential problems with sample bias. Yet in spite of these difficulties, over the past two decades a growing army of economists, econometricians and political scientists have devoted vast energy and intellectual effort Beyond the realm of scholarly debate there lies a towards improving our understanding of the link world of perceptions--which at times can be between governance and development. A great even more real in its impact than the empirical deal of interesting and innovative research is phenomena upon which it is grounded. There is moving forward. As a recent article in The an analogy with the Nielsen Ratings, which are Economist notes, "there have been huge used in the United States and many other improvements in monitoring and measuring the countries to measure audience size and rule of law, even though people cannot agree composition for television rankings. The task of exactly what it is." Historical studies have measuring audience size is a notoriously tricky demonstrated that institutional factors can play a business, and for a number of years it was major role in shaping the ability of poorer states known that Nielsen methodologies may suffer to catch up with more advanced ones. some bias and inaccuracy. (In fact, in June 2006 Econometric studies have demonstrated that the company announced sweeping plans to there is a strong and positive linkage between correct some of the more obvious discrepancies.) foreign direct investment and confirmation that Yet for decades, the Nielsen Ratings have been GOVERNANCE NEWS & NOTES Page 4 VOL. 2, ISSUE 1 accepted by the relevant stakeholders as the various sub-components of "good governance" currency through which major programming and factors that are known to produce favorable decisions were made and hundreds of millions of development outcomes. While not established advertising dollars were allocated. beyond a reasonable doubt, the burden of proof In a similar fashion, thousands of decisions are is increasingly falling upon those who would being made daily by a wide variety of actors on argue that there is no meaningful causal the basis of their views regarding the quality of a relationship between the two. given nation's governing institutions and their likely contribution to prosperity and economic MUSTAPHA K. NABLI INTERVIEW growth. Foreign and domestic investors decide how and where millions of dollars will be BY RAMI G. KHOURI committed. Ratings agencies make judgments about sovereign risk, financial sustainability and Governance and Economic Growth: Lessons ability to repay debt that influence the cost at Learned, Tasks Ahead which governments can borrow. A number of donors are increasingly factoring in governance WASHINGTON, D.C. ­ In recent years, considerations into decisions about aid economists, political scientists allocation. Citizens themselves are often acutely and development specialists interested in how their countries fare on various have identified a clear indices of good governance. In a variety of relationship between good MENA countries, the perception of clean and governance and equitable, effective governance--whether grounded in sustainable economic growth. robust empirical data or not--is increasingly Yet, these same analysts have having an impact upon the composition of not identified the precise cabinets and the ability of governments to rule nature or sequence of governance reforms effectively. needed to promote good outcomes and successful development in the Middle East and As of this point, enough evidence exists that North Africa (MENA) region. countries would ignore the linkage between well performing public sector institutions and This is the conclusion after several decades of economic growth at their peril. The work in this field of Dr. Mustapha K. Nabli, the aerodynamic principles underlying insect flight Chief Economist and Director of the Social and may be difficult to model, but few would dispute Economic Development Group of the World that bees or butterflies can fly. In a similar Bank's MENA division, who has been a pioneer fashion, the nuances of "good governance" may in the analysis of linkages between institutions, be difficult to fully weigh and measure, and it governance and economic growth. He is now may be years before its component parts and shifting to a new position in the Bank's Chief their impact upon economic growth are fully Economist office. parsed and understood. But the high correlation Looking back at advances in this field, he said in between economic wealth and the quality of institutions is well-established. The hypotheses an interview at the World Bank in late February linking institutions and growth are plausible that, "We have come to understand that governance institutions are really critical for even though they may not be validated conclusively. A rapidly growing body of growth, development, sustainability, efficiency and equity. The problem is that we do not all evidence is fleshing out the linkages between GOVERNANCE NEWS & NOTES Page 5 VOL. 2, ISSUE 1 agree on what we mean by governance, exactly, good foundation for long-term, equitable what needs to be changed, and how we do that." economic growth, even anticipating some scaling-up of the bank's focus on fighting Economists have learned that growth and corruption and enhancing good governance development issues in MENA countries are practices in the years ahead. influenced by pure economic factors, along with phenomena that are not strictly economic. "We However, he acknowledges that much work still started thinking needs to be about this and done on soon saw that identifying the root cause of the most lack of progress effective on all these means for dimensions was external the governance parties to dimension, influence and which also promote applies in many domestic other areas like good private governance. investment, The World banking reform, Bank has quality of learned from education, its own health, water sector management, and others." experience and defined mandate that it can only work by bringing information and experience to He singled out the "checks and balances the attention of governments that wish to dimension" as the single most critical element in improve their governance practices and achieve good governance, rather than a single branch of sustainable economic growth. government such as the judiciary, civil service, or legislature. "We cannot tell governments what to do or issue instructions. Typically, we identify an issue, do "Our research and experience suggest that the some analytical work to understand what is single most important aspect of good happening, bring in international expertise, and governance is whether or not you have a system start a dialogue with the authorities. Then it of checks and balances that allows society as a starts moving and we can assist, if the whole ­ the government, judiciary, NGOs, the government is convinced to move towards private sector, the media ­ to give feedback and reform," he explained. interact in a way that moves forward and corrects mistakes and weakness," he said. "The Is good governance the same thing as most critical governance issue is transparency democracy? and checks and balances that cut across all sectors." "I would distinguish between them," Nabli said. "You can theoretically imagine a system where Dr. Nabli expects the World Bank to continue its the accountability mechanisms and transparency emphasis on promoting good governance as a are strong, without having a democratic or GOVERNANCE NEWS & NOTES Page 6 VOL. 2, ISSUE 1 electoral system. Some countries experience has to be on good institutions, defined by strong economic growth without democratic accountability, transparency, and checks and institutions. That doesn't mean they have good balances. That's what good governance is all governance; it means they have good outcomes." about," he concludes. There is a growing body of analytic work that Now that he is shifting his professional focus demonstrates countries that do well on from the MENA region to the world beyond, governance indicators also tend to have high how does he compare the MENA countries' levels of per capita GDP. However, the linkages performance globally? and causal relationships are less well understood. Growth and successful "Broadly speaking, in terms of promoting development outcomes can result from many checks and balances in governance, the MENA things other than governance, such as a rich region has not experienced much progress. natural resource base. Growth and employment Governance reforms have essentially focused on expansion cannot automatically be equated with public administration and technical aspects of good governance, he warns. the judiciary, customs, the budget, civil service, and other such areas. These are very partial "For a period, a country can have high growth in attempts at governance reform. A few countries the context of not-so-good governance, and can have achieved good economic advances, but it's even become rich. In some resource-rich hard to say if this is due to any of the countries higher income and bad governance go governance reforms. As a region, MENA still together. We have to be careful with the lags behind the rest of the world, and we do not causality. It goes from good governance to better really know why. Perhaps we need more time outcomes, but better outcomes don't necessarily for significant progress to happen." mean you have good governance. That debate is still on-going." RITVA REINIKKA: NEW DIRECTOR IN THE WORLD BANK'S MENA REGION How to measure and define the outcomes of good governance is another area where much RITVA REINIKKA has work remains to be done. recently been appointed director of the Social and "We focus on economic growth and its impact," Economic Development he explains, "but we go beyond that to address Group, which is responsible equity issues. In the MENA region, this means for the Bank's work on creating the good quality jobs that are needed, economics, trade and along with quality education and health services. competitiveness, governance Public services delivery is an important part of and public sector the growth and equity goal." management, poverty, gender, finance and private sector development. So what should a country focus on if it aspires to She joins the MENA Vice Presidency from the sustained, equitable economic growth? Bank's Africa region, where she was previously "My own view is that democratic institutions are Country Director for Botswana, Madagascar, more likely to lead to better governance, but not Mauritius, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and necessarily so. Democratic institutions can also Swaziland. produce bad governance. That's why the focus GOVERNANCE NEWS & NOTES Page 7 VOL. 2, ISSUE 1 Ms. Reinikka's career combines extensive carefully benchmark the quality of their service practical experience with a strong research delivery through new micro-level evidence and orientation and long-standing commitment to careful impact evaluation. "My personal improving the quality of governance and public experience," she notes, "backed up by a growing administration. Before working in South Africa, body of research, indicates that services can she was a research manager in the Development improve markedly when you combine Research Group and co-director of the 2004 transparency with accurate measures of World Development Report, "Making Services government performance. Most of my career in Work for Poor People." This path breaking the Bank I have worked on topics related to study focused on the political, institutional and governance--especially on information, managerial challenges that can often interfere participation and client power--and I am very with efforts to provide public services such as much hoping to contribute to these agendas in health, education and water to the most MENA too." disadvantaged groups of society. "I've always been interested in how the man on the street "Another passion of mine is impact evaluation. experiences governance," she noted in a recent With limited resources and nearly unlimited interview. needs, impact evaluations should be an integral part of policy and public spending decisions. We need to know what works, what doesn't, and why. I intend to work with my team and our counterparts to put together a multi-sectoral impact evaluation program. This should serve the MENA region particularly well." One of the most formative experiences in her career came in the mid-1990s, when she began looking into problems with the flow of funds for education in Uganda. A survey revealed that during 1991-95 on average only 13 percent of grants made it to the schools. The disbursements were rarely audited or monitored, "Within MENA, it is very important that the and most schools and parents had little or no Bank leverage our limited resources and assist information about their entitlements to the our clients in making the greatest impact grants. Most of the funds were used for purposes possible. The Bank has historically been active unrelated to education (to fund the local political on a host of important issues involving public and bureaucratic machinery) or for private gain, sector reform, such as public financial as indicated by numerous newspaper articles management and civil service reform. While it about indictments of district education officers is important to continue work on these systemic after the survey findings went public. issues, it is also essential to ensure that changes in central institutions and practices are As evidence of the degree of leakage became ultimately linked with improvements in front- public knowledge in Uganda, the central line service delivery." Towards this end, she government enacted a number of changes. It envisions spending considerable time and effort began publishing the monthly transfers of public in helping clients throughout the MENA region funds to the districts in newspapers, GOVERNANCE NEWS & NOTES Page 8 VOL. 2, ISSUE 1 broadcasting information on the transfers on economic instability. Indeed, good governance radio, and requiring primary schools to post has moved from being a proscribed topic to one information on inflows of funds. The objective of the most debated topics, not only at the level of this "information campaign" was to promote of government, but also at the level of society at transparency and increase public sector large. accountability by giving citizens access to information needed to understand and examine The changing dynamics of reform are mostly the workings of the capitation grant program for attributed to internal and external pressures that primary schools. An assessment of these have been exerted on MENA governments in reforms shows that the flow of funds improved order to acknowledge the need for reform as a dramatically, from 13 percent on average pivotal issue for development. Consequently, the reaching schools in 1991-95 to around 80 region witnessed a surge of initiatives that have, percent in 2001. The World Bank and others slowly fostered a shift from the question of have subsequently replicated this public "whether reforms are needed or not" to the expenditure tracking survey (PETS) question of "how to design and implement methodology in over forty other countries. needed reforms." A Finnish national, Ms. Reinikka joined the The Good Governance for Development in the Bank in 1993 as a country economist in the Arab Countries (GfD) Initiative, which is jointly Eastern Africa Department. Her research and supported by UNDP and the OECD, is one of professional interests include public expenditure, the leading initiatives in this regard. Launched service delivery, and macroeconomic and trade by Prime Ministers and Ministers from eighteen policy. She has published widely on Arab countries in 2005, the GfD, today, has development in peer reviewed journals as well become the main regional forum for results- as through policy-oriented outlets. Prior to oriented policy dialogue on governance reform joining the Bank, Ms. Reinikka was a researcher priorities in the region. It has also become a at the Centre for the Study of African cornerstone for sustainable partnerships between Economies in the University of Oxford and the MENA and OECD countries. Helsinki School of Economics. She also held operational positions at UNICEF and with the In terms of achievements, the GfD has Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Finland. She succeeded in building an extensive network of holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Oxford committed policy makers from 18 Arab University. countries and most OECD countries. Through this mechanism, MENA policy makers THE GOVERNANCE FOR identified governance challenges and have been DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE: engaged in a wide array of regional activities Achievements and Future since 2005. Ten MENA countries have Directions successfully established national coordination teams, composed of key policy makers, to BY WASSIM HARB AND design and implement ensuing governance ARKAN EL SEBLANI reforms. These countries include Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Syria, The drive towards reform in the MENA region Tunisia, the UAE and Yemen. continues to gather momentum despite increasing security threats and political and GOVERNANCE NEWS & NOTES Page 9 VOL. 2, ISSUE 1 Four regional pilot projects have been GfD has the potential to build effective developed, endorsed and are going to be partnerships at the national, regional and implemented in the next three years, including a international levels that will be necessary to major project on supporting the implementation foster yet another strategic step forward, without of the UN Convention against Corruption which it may argued that governance reform will (UNCAC). In parallel, seven MENA countries remain lacking, i.e. benchmarking reform in the have developed, endorsed and began MENA region. implementing their own country action plans, which are based on a series of stocktaking The UNDP and OECD are working closely with activities and the ongoing regional policy the World Bank on many of these initiatives, and dialogue and capacity building. Bank staff have participated actively in GfD workshops and conferences. Plans are underway The GfD has also supported peer advice and to expand collaboration along several cooperation at the national level including peer- dimensions, particularly those involving the learning exchange on multilingual law drafting conduct of comparative analytic work and to improve regulatory quality, among other outreach and dissemination. things. Finally, the GfD has supported the setting up of regional networks and centers to build capacity and advance common priorities for MENA countries. These regional institutions include, but will not be limited to, a regional tax and financial management center in Egypt; a regional center for public policy evaluation in Morocco; a regional center for legislative and regulatory quality in Tunisia and a regional network on UNCAC implementation that is expected to bring together most of the MENA countries. In terms of future directions, the GfD will continue for another three years through its programs of work for 2008-2010, which tackle two institutional spheres, the public sector and the judicial system while integrating civil society participation, gender and environment as cross-cutting issues. It will seek to (a) deepen policy dialogue and capacity building at the regional level; (b) foster peer advice and partnerships for reform at the national level; (c) monitor and measure reform progress; and (d) anchor the initiative in a regional framework of institutions for reform. These directions, which have been adopted by MENA countries at a recent Ministerial meeting held in Cairo (Egypt) provide signals that the GOVERNANCE NEWS & NOTES Page 10 VOL. 2, ISSUE 1 UPCOMING EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES NOTEWORTHY LINKS Ø June 24-28, 2008: Global Governance for Sustainable Development: The Need for Policy World Bank MENA Governance Website Coherence and New Partnerships: 12th EADI http://www.worldbank.org/mena-governance General Conference. Geneva, Switzerland. Hosted by the Graduate Institute of International and World Bank General Governance Website: Development Studies. http://www.worldbank.org/governance gc2008@eadi.organd www.eadi.org MENA-OECD Initiative on Governance and Ø June 30, 2008:Roundtable Event on Associations' Investment for Development: www.oecd.org/mena Governance in Lebanon. Beirut, Lebanon. Organized By the Lebanese Transparency Governance and Social Development Research Association (LTA) in Cooperation with the Lebanese Centre:www.gsdrc.org Corporate Governance Task Force (LCGTF), and the The Arab Center for Rule of Law and Integrity: Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE). www.arabruleoflaw.org ckhalil@transparency-lebanon.org; and The Arab Administrative Development www.transparency-lebanon.org Organization (ARADO): www.arado.org Ø June 30-July 3, 2008: Training of Trainers on Corporate Governance. Tunis, Tunisia. CIPE and To subscribe or to change your subscription L'Institut Arabe des Chefs d' Entreprises (IACE). status, please contact: mkortbawi@cipe.org and www.cipe.org Ms. Alexandra Sperling Ø July 4, 2008: SteeringGroupMeetingatTechnical Economic and Social Development Unit Level of the GfD in Arab Countries Initiative. Middle East & North Africa Vice Presidency Cairo, Egypt. Organized with UNDP POGAR, under The World Bank the chairmanship of H. E. Dr. Ahmed Darwish, 1818 H. Street N.W. Minister of State for Administrative Development, Washington, D.C. 20433 Egypt and Chair of the Steering Group. +1 (202) 473-7079 info@pogar.org and www.undp-pogar.org +1 (202) 477-0432 (fax) asperling@worldbank.org Ø July 7-8, 2008: Workshop on improving Parliamentary oversight on revenues. Beirut, Lebanon. Organized by the Arab Region Parliamentarians against Corruption (ARPAC) in cooperation with Revenue Watch Institute (RWI). hmansour@arpacnetwork.org; and www.arpacnetwork.org Ø July 30-31, 2008: Regional Conference on "Anti- corruption bodies and related institutional reforms under the UNCAC", launching the Arab Network on Supporting UNCAC Implementation in Arab Countries. Amman, Jordan. Organized by UNDP in partnership with Jordan's Anti Corruption Commission, United Nations Office for Drugs and Crimes (UNODC), Organization for Economic Cooperation Development (OECD). info@pogar.org and www.undp-pogar.org GOVERNANCE NEWS & NOTES Page 11 VOL. 2, ISSUE 1 FOR FURTHER READING Arndt, Christiane and Charles Oman. "Uses and Abuses of Governance Indicators," OECD Development Centre (2006). Carothers, Thomas. Promoting the Rule of Law Abroad: The Search for Knowledge (Washington D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2006). Chong, Alberto and Cesar Calderon. "Causality and Feedback between Institutional Measures and Economic Growth," Economics and Politics, Vol. 12, No. 1. (March 2000). Gani, Azmat. "Governance and Foreign Direct Investment Links: Evidence for Panel Estimations," Applied Economics Letters, Vol. 14 No. 10 (August 2007), pp. 753-756. Gupta,Sanjeev, Hamid Davoodi, and Rosa Alonso-Terme, "Does Corruption Affect Income Inequality and Poverty," IMF Working Paper WP/98/76 (Washington D.C.: IMF Fiscal Affairs Department, May 1998). Kaufmann, Daniel and Art Kraay. Governance and Growth: Causality Which Way? Evidence for the World, in Brief, (World Bank Institute, February 2003), http://siteresources.worldbank.org/ INTWBIGOVANTCOR/Resources/growthgov_synth.pdf. Keefer, Phil and Stephen Knack. "Why Don't Poor Countries Catch Up? A Cross-National test of an Institutional Explanation," Economic Inquiry No. 35 (1997), pp. 590-602. North, Douglass. "Economic Performance Through Time," Lecture to the Memory of Alfred Nobel, December 9, 1993. "Order in the Jungle," The Economist (March 13, 2008). Thomas, Melissa. "What Do the Worldwide Governance Indicators Measure?" http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWBIGOVANTCOR/Resources/1740479-1149112210081/2604389- 1167941884942/what_do_wgi_measure.pdf. Treisman, Daniel. "What Have We Learned About the Causes of Corruption from Ten Years of Cross-national Empirical Research?" Annual Review of Political Science, Vol. 10 (June 2007). Jin-Wei, Shang. "How Taxing is Corruption on Foreign Investors," The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 82 No. 1 (February 2000). Disclaimer: views expressed in this publication reflect those of their authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the World Bank Group, its Board or its management.