Governance
All topics →Democracy, corruption, resource curse, institutional quality
Research (8)
Climate Vulnerability vs Emissions
Chad emits less CO2 in a year than a US state does in a day. Chad is also one of the most climate-vulnerable countries on Earth. The injustice is measurable.
Corruption Tax
Corruption isn't a moral issue — it's a tax, and we can estimate the rate. Countries with worse governance attract less investment, grow slower, and develop less. The data quantifies the cost.
Who Funds Their Own Defense
Who's actually paying for Western security? We mapped NATO defense spending against the 2% target. The free-riding is measurable — and the dollar gap is enormous.
Does Democracy Pay?
Democracies are richer — but did democracy make them rich? The relationship between governance and growth is more complicated than any slogan. We let the data speak.
Education Spending vs Innovation Output
Some countries spend billions on education and produce no patents. Others spend less and lead the world in innovation. The missing ingredient isn't money — it's R&D.
Guns vs Butter in Numbers
Every dollar spent on tanks is a dollar not spent on teachers. We mapped military, education, and health spending for every country — the priorities are stark.
Pandemic Preparedness vs GDP
Rich countries assumed they were ready for a pandemic. They weren't. We mapped health infrastructure against income — the overperformers are poor countries with good systems.
The Resource Curse Mapped
Finding oil should make you rich — so why doesn't it? We mapped natural resource wealth against governance and growth. The curse is real, but not inevitable.
Explainers (4)
Dutch disease
How a resource windfall can hollow out the rest of your economy — and why the real disease is mismanagement.
Economic sanctions: what they are, what they aren’t, and how they leak
Sanctions are financial plumbing and export controls—not magic. They bite through chokepoints and leak via detours.
Governance indicators
What the World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators actually measure — and why you should trust the trends more than the rankings.
Industrial policy
The spectrum of policies used to shape what an economy produces—and why the design matters more than the ideology.