Category: Public policy
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21-09-2026
The last post identified potential transition pathways for truck drivers based on how closely other occupations matched them on skills, abilities and knowledge. This post follows the same basic approach across a wider range of occupations and asks whether two proxies could stand in for the ratings where no O*NET exists: a small language model comparing the meaning of job descriptions and the distance between two jobs' US Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes.
The first post established that the WGI and WJP rule of law measures agree on how they rank countries. This follow-up tests the stricter question of whether the WGI can predict the WJP’s levels, rather than just the relative ranking / relative position of countries. It can: forecasting errors appear to be minimal and don’t vary significantly over time.
This post examines whether the Worldwide Governance Indicators' (WGI) rule of law measure provides a reasonable proxy for the World Justice Project's (WJP) Rule of Law Index, such as when analysis might benefit from the WGI's availability for more countries over a longer period. Results suggest the two measures broadly agree with one another when making cross-country comparisons, but care is warranted for country-level estimates where it's likely to be more difficult to differentiate measurement noise from genuine changes in the quality of institutions.