Measuring the quality of government at the sub-national level : European Quality of Government Index (EQI); Round 5, Part I: Technical report

This document presents the fifth round of the EQI data on regional governance in EU countries in the context of the previous four rounds (Charron, Dijkstra, and Lapuente, 2014; Charron, Dijkstra, and Lapuente, 2015; Charron, Lapuente, and Rothstein, 2013; Charron, Lapuente, and Annoni, 2019; Charron, Lapuente, Bauhr, et al., 2022. While this round of data largely builds on the work of previous rounds, there are several alterations in terms of the sample, question items and several small adjustments from previous rounds of the EQI that we discuss in this report. In this document, we highlight the sample, summary statistics and question items that are included in the 2024 round of the EQI. Together with national estimates from the World Bank Governance Indicators (Kaufmann, Kraay, and Mastruzzi, 2009), we report data on Quality of Government ('QoG') for all EU 27 countries and for NUTS 2 regions for all available EU countries (save Ger-many and Belgium at NUTS 1), for a sample of 209 regions in total1. The main QoG questions used to build the EQI are aimed at capturing average citizens' perceptions and experiences with corruption, and the extent to which they rate their public services as impartial and of good quality. In addition, we highlight broad patterns as we see them in the data and, more specifically, analyse trends in the EQI over time within regions. Using observations from the regional estimates in round5 and in previous rounds, we elucidate a list of potentially interesting case studies, with a focus on capital region comparisons, that can be undertaken to better draw out 'best practices' to improve governance at the sub-national level in other EU regions.