Data used in the article:
O'Reilly, C. and Murphy, R.H. (2022), An Index Measuring State Capacity, 1789–2018. Economica, 89: 713-745. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecca.12411
Colin O'Reilly and Ryan H. Murphy contribute to the literature on state capacity by developing a method that yields to State Capacity Index with far more comprehensive data coverage across time (1789-2021) and countries than has been possible previously.
Unlike narrower measures of fiscal capacity or legal capacity, the index is more comprehensive, using data from the Varieties of Democracy dataset on fiscal capacity, a state's control over its territory, the rule of law, and the provision of public goods used to support markets. Like the previous studies, the results derived from the State Capacity Index demonstrate that the historical prevalence of warfare predicts state capacity.