CMI (Chr. Michelsen Institute) Development Studies and Human Rights
 
 

Conference Paper

Is it Right to Rank? Limitations, Implications and Potential Improvements of Corruption Indicies

CMI authors:
Tina Søreide

Thematic research group:
Public Sector Reform

Keywords:
Corruption, measurement, index, ranking

Tina Søreide (2005)

Presented at: IV Global Forum on Fighting Corruption, Brasilia, Brazil, 7-10 June 2005

[pdf] Download publication

This paper emphasizes the importance of collecting information on corruption, still stressing critical aspects of the cross-country composite corruption indices: Is this practice damaging and misleading or is it informative and useful? The title-question demands a broad discussion about the possibility of ranking countries on the basis of their extent of corruption. The paper points at the implication of the lack of a clear distinction between legal and illegal payments or ways of making influence. It summarizes the main limits of Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), underscores the problem of expecting perceptions to be reliable, and discusses the problem of incorrect understanding and usage of the index. Publicity does not necessarily mean progress, and the construction of the CPI should be influenced by the way this index is applied by the masses. A final question is whether it is possible to increase the CPI's value, for instance by creating incentives for states to improve their achievements on the OECD anti-bribery convention. This paper was presented at the IV Global Forum on Fighting Corruption, Brasilia 2005, June 7-10.

[pdf] Is it Right to Rank? Limitations, Implications and Potential Improvements of Corruption Indicies

Public Sector Reform
News

Monitoring and Evaluating Mozambique's Poverty Reduction Strategy

This report analyses poverty and well-being in the rural district of Murrupula, revisiting four local communities and a total of 120 households, three years after the first study in 2006. Read more

The Strange Alchemy of Life and Law

Detained in solitary confinement, tortured, exiled and eventually blown up by a car bomb. From an early age Albie Sachs played a prominent part in the struggle for justice in South Africa. Later in life he helped draft South Africa's post-apartheid Constitution, and served as a member of the Constitutional Court for fifteen years. Sachs talks to host Siri Gloppen about his life and role as a judge in the formative years of post-apartheid South Africa. Read more

The public sector - how can it deliver?

Equal access to health and other services require adequate funding of the state. Read more

A Momentous Year

2009 was a momentuous year at CMI. We moved to the city centre. We opened a new arena for research communication: Bergen Research Centre for International Development. And in the same year, we achieved a publication record with the highest number of peer reviewed articels ever. Read the online version. Read more

'Opitanha' revisited. Assessisng the implications of PARPA II in rural northern Mozambique 2006-2009

A number of improvements have taken place in local governance, physical infrastructure and agricultural marketing options, this has so far primarily benefitted the better-off with few, if any, implications for the very poorest. Read more

Sub-Saharan Africa Southern and Central Asia Middle East Latin America