The 2013 Crabtree’s index of morality, conscience, and the good life (Crabtree, 2013) is employed as a
gauge of national moral character (Crabtree, 2013). The Crabtree index considers eighteen different
criteria in its construction, and ranges in value from a low of 27.4 to a high of 90.7 for 2013.
Militarization is quantified using the Bonn International Center for Conversion’s global militarization
index score for 2013 (Bonn International Center for Conversion, 2015). The global militarization index
takes into account two military expenditure indicators (the percentage of military expenditures to GDP,
military expenditures to health spending), three military personnel indicators (military and paramilitary
personnel to the population, military reservists to population, and military and paramilitary personnel to
physicians), and one weapons indicator (heavy weapons to population) in its construction. The potential
range of the global militarization index is from zero to a thousand.
Population comes from the World Bank, and is in numbers of people for the year 2010 (World Bank,
2014).
The extent of trade openness of a country is captured by using the percentage of total trade (exports
plus imports) to GDP for the year 2010. As with the population data, the data for trade openness comes
from the World Bank.
Finally, the extent of democracy is measured by using the 2010 democracy index from the Economist
Intelligence Unit of The Economist magazine (The Economist, 2010). The index has a potential range
in value from one to ten with higher numbers representing a higher country democracy score.