# **TABLE A28:  World Economic Forum (GCS, GCSA)**

## **A28. World Economic Forum (GCS)**

http://www.weforum.org The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an independent, not-for-profit organization bringing together top leaders from business, government, academia and the media to address key economic, social and political issues in partnership. The WEF was founded in 1971 and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.

Since 1996, the WEF has sponsored the Global Competitiveness Report, an annual publication produced in collaboration with the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID). As background for this report, the WEF conducts the Global Competitiveness Survey, which measures the perceptions of business executives about the country in which they operate. The survey asks top managers to rank on a 1 to 7 scale their opinion on issues in eight broad areas: 1) Openness, 2) Government, 3) Finance, 4) Infrastructure, 5) Technology, 6) Management, 7) Labor, and 8) Institutions.

In 1998 and 2002 the WEF sponsored separate surveys of countries in Africa and Middle East, respectively. We incorporated them in the Global Surveys, resulting in an increase of country coverage in 1998 and 2002 of 20 and 8 countries, respectively.

In the table below we list the variables included in each of the governance indicators. In this paper, we use data from the 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002-2005 Surveys Additional questions from the 1998 African Competitiveness Report (covering 23 African countries overall) have also been listed (GCSA).

|**Table A28: World Economic Forum(104 developed and developi**|**ng cou**|**ntries**|**)**|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||2005|2004|2003|2002|2000|1998|1996|
|**Voice and Accountability**||||||||
|Firms are usually informed clearly and transparently by the Government on changes in policies<br>affecting their industry|..|X|X|X|..|..|..|
|Newspapers can publish stories of their choosing without fear of censorship or retaliation|X|X|X|X|..|..|..|
|When deciding upon policies and contracts, Government officials favor well-connected firms|X|X|X|X|..|..|..|
|Extent of direct influence of legal contributions to political parties on specific public policy<br>outcomes|..|X|X|X|..|..|..|
|Effectiveness of national Parliament/Congress as a law making and oversight institution|X|X|X|X|..|..|..|
|**Political Stability**||||||||
|The threat of terrorism in the country imposes significant costs on business|X|X|X|X|..|..|..|
|New Governments honor commitments of previous Governments|..|..|..|..|X|X|X|
|Likelihood of dramatic changes in institutions|..|..|..|..|X|X|X|
|The highest power is always peacefully transferred|..|..|..|..|..|X|..|
|Government coups or political instability as an obstacle to development (GCSA)|..|..|..|..|..|X|..|
|Tribal conflict as an obstacle for business development (GCSA)|..|..|..|..|..|X|..|
|**Government Effectiveness**||||||||
|Competence of public sector personnel|X|X|X|X|X|X|X|
|Quality of general infrastructure|X|X|X|X|..|..|X|
|Quality of public schools|X|X|X|X|..|..|X|
|Time spent by senior management dealing with government officials|X|X|X|X|X|X|X|
|Public Service vulnerability to political pressure|..|..|..|..|X|X|X|
|Wasteful government expenditure|X|X|..|..|X|X|..|
|Strength and expertise of the civil service to avoid drastic interruptions in government services in<br>times of political instability (GCSA)|..|..|..|..|..|X|..|
|Government economic policies are independent of pressure from special interest groups.|..|..|..|..|X|..|..|

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