How should margins of error be used when comparing governance scores across countries and over time?
When comparing two countries, or one country at two points in time, it is important to take margins of error into account. A useful rule of thumb is that if the two confidence intervals overlap, the difference between the two countries or two points in time is not statistically, or likely practically, significant. Put differently, when changes in the aggregate governance scores are small relative to the reported margins of error, they should not be over-interpreted – in such cases the WGI data are not informative about trends in governance, or differences across countries.
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