Your discussion topic for the weekend

Blogging will be light for the next few days, as I’m attending a conference that’s discussing the Legatum Prosperity Index and how it can be improved.  So, in between watching people helicopter in and out of this meeting and seeing more t-statistics than you can shake a stick at, I’ll be tied up.  I would ...

By , a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast.

Blogging will be light for the next few days, as I'm attending a conference that's discussing the Legatum Prosperity Index and how it can be improved.  So, in between watching people helicopter in and out of this meeting and seeing more t-statistics than you can shake a stick at, I'll be tied up.  I would be interested in hearing some feedback on this index, however.  In particular:  What's missing from their evaluations of prosperity? Is there an "index fatigue" problem?  More think tanks and research institutes have figured out that any kind of ranking exercise is bound to get attention.  The thing is, the proliferation of these indices has caused the commentariat to become cyncial about their objectivity.  Has the market for index/ranking systems become too crowded?

Blogging will be light for the next few days, as I’m attending a conference that’s discussing the Legatum Prosperity Index and how it can be improved.  So, in between watching people helicopter in and out of this meeting and seeing more t-statistics than you can shake a stick at, I’ll be tied up.  I would be interested in hearing some feedback on this index, however.  In particular: 

  1. What’s missing from their evaluations of prosperity?
  2. Is there an “index fatigue” problem?  More think tanks and research institutes have figured out that any kind of ranking exercise is bound to get attention.  The thing is, the proliferation of these indices has caused the commentariat to become cyncial about their objectivity.  Has the market for index/ranking systems become too crowded?

Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner

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