Bureaucratic Structure and Economic Performance:
Codebook 6/23/97

Introduction:

This codebook explains the coding of the variables in the data set produced by the Bureaucratic Structure and Economic Performance project. After the country name and country abbreviation, the next 29 variables (q101-sq20) are derived from the questionnaires filled out by the 126 country experts who participated in this project. (The original questionnaire is reproduced as the Appendix to "Bureaucratic Structure and Bureaucratic Performance in Less Developed Countries," by James E. Rauch and Peter B. Evans.) For convenience we have also included in the data set on this web site variables (sq2_rc-inv6570) used in "Bureaucracy and Growth: A Cross-National Analysis of the Effects of 'Weberian' State Structures on Economic Growth," by Peter B. Evans and James E. Rauch, and variables (corrupt1-ethfrac) used in the Rauch and Evans paper already cited. For descriptions of these variables see the respective papers.

Overview:

Narrative and Standard Answers: In order to make comparisons across countries more feasible we have provided some standard alternative answers to each question, but we are well aware that these standard answers can't capture the full complexities of real bureaucratic structures. Therefore, we hope that in addition to indicating which standard alternative comes closest to describing your case, you will offer a separate, complementary narrative discussion of how the state bureaucracies you are describing look with regard to these issues. Time Period: We are interested primarily in what these bureaucracies looked like in the recent past roughly 1970 - 1990. If there have been important changes within this period, or between this period and the present please indicate the sub-period to which your answers apply. We would also appreciate any commentary you could add on changes over time in your narrative responses.

Core Economic Agencies:

1. List the four most important agencies in the central state bureaucracy order of their power to shape overall economic policy. (e.g. Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Industry and/or Trade and/or Commerce, Planning Board, agency or Ministry)?

To aggregate these responses for the country-level data, nine variables were created:

Variable Names:

Codes:

2. Which of the following descriptions best fits the role of these agencies in the formulation of economic policy.

Codes:

Variable Name: SQ2 - Country Average on Q2


3. How likely are ideas and policies initiated by these agencies to prevail?

Codes:

Variable Name: SQ3 - Country Average on Q3

Recruitment and Careers:

[In answering the following questions, assume that "higher officials", refers to those who hold roughly the top 500 positions in the core economic agencies you have discussed above.]

4. Approximately what proportion of the higher officials in these agencies enter the civil service via a formal examination system?

Codes:

Variable Name: SQ4 - Country Average on Q4

5. Of those that do not enter via examinations, what proportion have university or post-graduate degrees.

Codes:

Variable Name: SQ5 - Country Average on Q5

6. Roughly how many of the top levels in these agencies are political appointees (e.g. appointed by the President or Chief Executive)

Codes:

Variable Name: SQ6 - Country Average on Q6

7. Of political appointees to these positions, what proportion are likely to already be members of the higher civil service?

Codes:

Variable Name: SQ7 - Country Average on Q7

8. Of those promoted to the top 2 or 3 levels in these agencies (whether or not they are political appointees), what proportion come from within the agency itself or (its associated ministry(ies) if the agency is not itself a ministry)?

Codes:

Variable Name: SQ8 - Country Average on Q8

9. Are the incumbents of these top positions likely to be moved to positions of lesser importance when political leadership changes?

Codes:

Variable Name: SQ9 - Country Average on Q9

10. What is roughly the modal number of years spent by a typical higher level official in one of these agencies during his career?

Codes:

Variable Name: SQ10 - Country Average on Q10

11. What prospects for promotion can someone who enters one of these agencies through a higher civil service examination early in his/her career reasonably expect? Assuming that there are at least a half dozen steps or levels between and entry-level position and the head of the agency, how would you characterize the possibilities for moving up in the agency? [ NB. more than one may apply.]

  1. in most cases, will move up one or two levels but no more.
  2. in most cases, will move up three or four levels, but unlikely to reach the level just below political appointees.
  3. if performance is superior, moving up several levels to the level just below political appointees is not an unreasonable expectation.
  4. in at least a few cases, could expect to move up several levels within the civil service and then move up to the very top of the agency on the basis of political appointments.

Codes:

Variable Name: SQ11d - Country Average on Q11d

12. How common is it for higher officials in these agencies to spend substantial proportions of their careers in the private sector, interspersing private and public sector activity?

Codes:

Variable Name: SQ12 - Country Average on Q12

13. How common is it for higher officials in these agencies to have significant post-retirement careers in the private sector?

Codes:

Variable Name: SQ13 - Country Average on Q13

Salaries:

14. How would you estimate the salaries (and perquisites, not including bribes or other extra-legal sources of income) of higher officials in these agencies relative to those of private sector managers with roughly comparable training and responsibilities?

Codes:

Variable Name: SQ14 - Country Average on Q14

15. If bribes and other extra-legal perquisites are included what would the proportion be?

Codes:

Variable Name: SQ15 - Country Average on Q15

16. Over the period in question (roughly 1970-1990) what was the movement of legal income in these agencies relative to salaries in the private sector?

Codes:

Variable Name: SQ16 - Country Average on Q16

Civil Service Exams:

[NB: These questions refer to the higher Civil Service more broadly, not just to the top 500 officials in the core agencies.]

17. Since roughly what date have civil service examinations been in place?______

Codes:

Variable Name: SQ17a - Country Average on Q17A

In the aggregated country-level data set, an additional variable was added, based on experts' answers to Q17 and Q18:

Variable Name: Q17B

Codes: 0 = No civil service exams, or exams are of trivial importance

18. Roughly what proportion of those who take the higher civil service exam pass?

Codes:

Variable Name: SQ18 - Country average on Q18

19. Among graduates of the country's most elite university(ies), is a public sector career considered:

Codes:

Variable Name: SQ19 - Country Average on Q19

20. Among members of the educated middle class who are not in a position to attend the most elite universities is a public sector career considered:

Codes:

Variable Name: SQ20 - Country Average on Q20


The individual responses to the above questions were aggregated to create a country-level data set, in which each country received a score equal to the average of the responses of all experts answering each question for that country.