All of these measures are calculated well before the Asian crisis. E$ciency of
the legal system pertains to 1980}83. The measures of corruption and law and
order cover 1982}95. The measures of corporate governance are calculated
primarily using data for the early and mid-1990s.
In their Global Emerging Markets (June, 1998) Flemings Research develops an
alternative measure of corporate governance across emerging markets. They
asked their country specialists to consider `the disclosure of information, transparency
of ownership structures, management and special interest groups,
adequacy of the legal system, whether the standards that are set are actually
enforced, and if the boards of companies are independent and the rights of
minority shareholders are uphelda (p. 19). This index therefore tries to capture
the extent of shareholder rights in practice. The index runs from one to "ve with
a higher score meaning more rights and they note that `a score of 5 would be
awarded to the US } our model marketa (p. 20). One disadvantage of this
measure is that it was published in spring 1998, and therefore could in part
re#ect reassessments of shareholder rights in light of the Asian crisis.