The School of Economics and Management of the University of Porto (FEP) and the University of Saint Gallen (Switzerland), in collaboration with an international network of partners and academic institutions, have developed the first world index to measure the quality of elites, namely the way in which actions and different approaches in the generation of wealth of elites favor or hinder the progress of their country.
It is a political economy index based on four main indicators - Economic Power, Economic Value, Political Power and Political Value - that determines the quality of the elites in a given country and helps predict how companies, societies and countries will achieve success.
Indicators
EQx identifies datasets that represent Value (both, Creation ≠ Extraction) and Power – underlying indicators are normalized, aggregated and weighted consistently with the index methodology and architecture.
Value: the outcomes of productive and wealth enhancing activities – value Creation is the opposite of value Extraction, which is the transfer of value from one subset of society to another.
Power: is the capacity of elites to enforce their preferences and business model interests via institutional arrangements – power is a potential degree of future value Extraction.
The Index Architecture
Level 1: country scores are aggregated from two Sub-Indices: Power and Value.
Level 2: the Power and Value Sub-Indices each have a Political and Economic Dimension yielding a two-by-two matrix with four Index Areas.
Level 3: the 12 Pillars conceptually fit the four Index Areas: Political Power, Economic Power, Political Value and Economic Value
Level 4: selected datasets are operationalized as EQx Indicators: they reflect Value, either in terms of Creation or Extraction
EQx Country Scores & Global Rank
Country Scores represent the comparative value Creation (vs. value Extraction) of national elite business models on aggregate.
Global Rank lists countries in terms of Elite Quality, from highest to lowest.
Results are used in economic, political and social analysis: this includes the interpretative State of Elites framework, or testing whether elite quality is a leading indicator for long-term economic growth and human development
Country Scorecards: The Deep Dive
Each covered country can be examined in all its political economy complexity on the basis of a rich dataset of 72 Indicators and unique aggregated results, to comparatively establish in what areas value is created (or transferred away)
Global Perspective: Comprehensive Analysis
Elite Quality Reports are a tool for comprehensive, original and far-reaching economic analysis, characterized by:
An innovative framework leading to novel interpretations of the state of society;
An ability to compare countries’ futures;
A focus on the business models of elites, filling a conceptual gap;
The power to complement and possibly perfect orthodox economic analysis;
A potential role in constructive national public and policy debates.
Elite Quality Reports are produced by the Elite Quality Foundation (EQF) based in St.Gallen, Switzerland, with the academic leadership provided by the University of St.Gallen’s Research Institute of International Management (FIM-HSG) and the Institute of Economics (FGN-HSG)
as well as by a global network of partner institutions.
The first EQx Report is the EQx2020 released in Summer of 2020 and covering 32 countries, to be followed by the full 100+ country EQx 2021.
