IRIS, PRS Group

Summary

The IRIS Dataset was originally constructed in 1993 by Steve Knack and Philip Keefer for the IRIS Center at the University of Maryland, based on data obtained from the International Country Risk Guide (ICRG). The dataset includes computed scores for six ICRG political risk variables: corruption in government, rule of law, bureaucratic quality, ethnic tensions, repudiation of contracts by government, and risk of expropriation. Knack produced subsequent issues of the data for an ongoing series of working papers from the IRIS Center. In its current form, IRIS-3 contains data for the period 1982-1997.

More recent political risk ratings for all countries monitored by ICRG can be purchased by using the "CountryData Online (CDO)"

Tables In IFs

Variable	Definition	Yearss	UsedInPreprocessor
PolRiskBurQuality	Bureaucratic quality scale (0-6, higher is better)	1982-1997	0
PolRiskContractRepud	Contract repudiation by government scale (0-10, higher is better)	1982-1997	0
PolRiskCorruption	Corruption scale (0-6, higher is better)	1982-1997	0
PolRiskEthnicTension	Ethnic tension scale (0-6, higher is better)	1982-1997	0
PolRiskExpropriation	Expropriation risk scale (0-10, higher is better)	1982-1997	0
PolRiskRuleofLaw	Rule of law quality (0-6, higher is better)	1982-1997	0

Data Pulling Instructions

1. Navigate to https://epub.prsgroup.com/products/icrg/iris-dataset
2. This has to be purchased.