FREEDOM INDICES AS PREDICTORS OF KNOWLEDGE OPENNESS

Francisco Rodríguez and Ernest J. Wilson in their paper “Are Poor Countries Losing the Information Revolution?” noted that:
“countries enjoy greater technological progress when they produce:

1. A climate of democratic rights and civil liberties that is conducive to innovation and adaptation of ICTs.

2. Respect for the rule of law and security of property rights.
3. Investment in Human Capital.
4. Low levels of government distortions.”

We tend to think that expanding the information infrastructure expands access to information, and that this will promote democracy and civil liberties. Francisco and Ernie suggest that there is at least causal relationship in the other direction. I suspect that regimes that don’t want their citizens to be too active, will not want to see the information infrastructure expand too fast. In any case, let me note a number of sites that provide data that may be useful in judging the openness of countries.

Freedom House Country Ratings
Since 1972, Freedom House has published an annual assessment of state state-of-freedom by assigning each country and territory the status of "Free," "Partly Free," or "Not Free" by averaging their political rights and civil liberties ratings. Freedom House is a U.S. non-profit, nonpartisan organization financed by tax-deductible grants and donations.

Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders, an NGO, maintains this (French, English and Spanish) website, updated several times a day, that illuminates the openness of countries’ information systems. The website seeks to identify attacks on press freedom worldwide. To circumvent censorship, the website presents occasionally articles that have been banned in their country of origin, hosts newspapers that have been closed down in their homeland and serves as a forum where journalists who have been "silenced" by authorities can voice their opinions. This website, which welcomes 35,000 to 45,000 visitors per month, also provides complete reports on cases covered in the press, as well as a daily "barometer" summarising the most recent attacks on press freedom.

IREX Media Sustainability Index
The International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) IREX publishes the annual Media Sustainability Index (MSI), analyzing the status and progress of independent media in 20 (former Communist) countries.

The PRS Group publishes an “International Country Risk Guide,” classifying political, financial and economic risks. The information is for sale, but a sample copy of the guide is available to be downloaded without charge. While the free data is perhaps outdated for commercial application, it appears sufficiently recent for academic use.

FreetheWorld.Com provides one of several indices of economic freedom. The data is provided by The Fraser Institute, and can be downloaded, gratis, from the site.

The Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal Index of Economic Freedom

And here is another.

The ATKearney/Foreign Policy Magazine Globalization Index
This index deals with the openness of the economy to foreign investment, international trade and other indicators of globalization.


World Bank staff have developed a set of governance indicators (voice and accountability, political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, control of corruption)

It is also provided in this paper:

“Growth Without Governance” By Daniel Kaufmann and Aart Kraay, July 2002.

This is a nice World Bank presentation dealing with governance indicators:

Governance Matters: Power of Data Challenging Orthodoxies on Democracy, Corruption and Poverty By Daniel Kaufmann and colleagues.