Colin W. O’Reilly

Datasets

Data and code from published work, free to use with citation. Replication files for other papers are linked from each paper on the Research page.

State Capacity Index

195 countries · 1789–2025

An index of state capacity for a long and wide panel of countries. It combines Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) indicators of fiscal capacity, the state’s control over its territory, the rule of law, and the provision of public goods that support markets. The construction of the index is described in “An Index Measuring State Capacity, 1789–2018” (with Ryan H. Murphy), Economica 89(355): 713–745, 2022.

Explore the data

Compare countries over time, map state capacity around the world in any year, rank countries, and see which components drive each country’s score. Download every version in CSV, Stata or Excel, including the latest update built from V-Dem v16 with data to 2025.

Open the State Capacity explorer
Earlier release packages (with original Stata code and documentation)
VersionCoverageContentsDownload
V-Dem v14 1789–2023 Updated index (Stata and Excel), plus the original v9 series ZIP, 3.7 MB
V-Dem v12 1789–2018 Index rebuilt from V-Dem v12 (Stata and Excel) ZIP, 2.1 MB
V-Dem v9 As published 1789–2018 Series used in the Economica article, with Stata code to construct and evaluate it ZIP, 1.6 MB

The data are also hosted by the London School of Economics on the Pillars of Prosperity website. A working-paper version of the article is on SSRN.

Abstract

This paper contributes to the literature on state capacity by developing a method that yields an index of state capacity with far more comprehensive data coverage across time and countries than has been possible previously. Unlike narrower measures of fiscal capacity or legal capacity, the index is more comprehensive, using data from the Varieties of Democracy dataset on fiscal capacity, a state’s control over its territory, the rule of law, and the provision of public goods used to support markets. Like the previous literature, it demonstrates that the historical prevalence of warfare predicts state capacity. Several exercises are performed to demonstrate the validity of the index in measuring state capacity.

Keywords state capacity; fiscal capacity; legal capacity; rule of law; Varieties of Democracy; institutional development · JEL H11, O43, H20, P14

Cite as

O’Reilly, Colin, and Ryan H. Murphy. 2022. “An Index Measuring State Capacity, 1789–2018.” Economica 89(355): 713–745. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecca.12411

Red Tape Index

US states

A practical measure of red tape for US states, built from the State RegData dataset. It measures the excess stringency of regulation in each industry relative to a benchmark level, then weights that excess by each state’s industrial composition. The construction of the index is described in “A Practical Measure of Red Tape” (with Dustin Chambers), Regulation & Governance 20(4): 1672–1703, 2026.

Download the Red Tape Index Excel, 13 KB
Abstract

Regulation can influence economic dynamism, the distribution of income, and various measures of economic welfare. Despite a substantial proportion of regulation in the United States originating at the state level, we are not aware of any comprehensive measure of excess regulation or “red tape” at the state level. We fill this notable gap by constructing a novel measure of state level red tape based on the State RegData dataset. The red tape index measures the excess stringency of regulation in each industry relative to a benchmark level of regulation and then weights the extent of excess stringency on the industrial composition of each state. As a comprehensive measure of regulation, the red tape index differs fundamentally from other existing measures of state level regulation, which tend to target a particular type of regulation (for example, labor market regulation). The red tape index reveals wide variation in the level of industry regulation among states, and that most states have regulations that go beyond a so-called “light touch” regulatory approach, implying that red tape is pervasive. This index may be of value for both empirically estimating the effect of comparatively high levels of state regulation on various outcomes of interest and for policy makers seeking to streamline administrative rules.

Keywords regulation; red tape; comparative industrial policy · JEL K20, L51, L52

Cite as

Chambers, Dustin, and Colin O’Reilly. 2026. “A Practical Measure of Red Tape.” Regulation & Governance 20(4): 1672–1703. https://doi.org/10.1111/rego.70079