Indicators and rankings are widely used by governments and international organizations to assess the effectiveness, efficiency, and success of policy decisions. The role of indicators is, however, little examined. This book closes this gap by evaluating the creation of indicators, their impact on policy decisions, and the implications of their use.

• 1: Kevin Davis, Benedict Kingsbury, and Sally Merry: Governance by Indicators


• 2: Wendy Nelson Espeland and Michael Sauder: The Dynamism of Indicators


• 3: Armin von Bogdandy and Matthias Goldmann: Taming and Framing Indicators: A Legal Reconstruction of the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)


• 4: Christopher Stone: Problems of Power in the Design of Indicators of Safety and Justice in the Global South


• 5: Angelina Fisher: Immunization Coverage Indicators: Technology of Public Health Governance


• 6: Nehal Bhuta: State Failure: The U.S. Fund for Peace Failed States Index


• 7: Ronen Shamir and Dana Weiss: Corporations, Indicators, and Human Rights: A Material Semiotics View


• 8: Sarah Dadush: Trends in Mission-Driven Funding: New Impact Indicators for a New Impact Industry


• 9: Terence C. Halliday: Legal Yardsticks: International Financial Institutions As Legal Diagnosticians and Remedial Agents


• 10: AnnJanette Rosga and Margaret L. Satterthwaite: Measuring Human Rights: U.N. Indicators in Critical Perspective


• 11: René Urueña: Internally Displaced Population in Colombia: A Case Study on the Domestic Aspects of Indicators as Technologies of Global Governance


• 12: Anne Gallagher and Janie Chuang: The Use of Indicators to Measure Government Responses to Human Trafficking


• 13: Marina Zaloznaya and John Hagan: Fighting Human Trafficking or Instituting Authoritarian Control? The Political Cooptation of Human Rights Protection in Belarus


• 14: Margaret L. Satterthwaite: Rights-Based Humanitarian Indicators in Post-Earthquake Haiti


• 15: Nikhil K. Dutta: Accountability in the Generation of Governance Indicators


• 16: Tim Büthe: Beyond Supply and Demand: A Political-Economic Conceptual Model of Measurement Standards for Global Markets


• 17: Sabino Cassese and Lorenzo Casini: Public Regulation of Global Indicators

Kevin Davis is Beller Family Professor of Business Law at New York University's School of Law.
Angelina Fisher is Programme Director at NYU's Institute for International Law and Business.
Benedict Kingsbury is Murray and Ida Becker Professor of Law at New York University's School of Law.
Sally Engle Merry is Professor of Anthropology, Law, and Society at New York University.