| Description: |
Policymaking involves making comparisons across both time and space. Data about conditions at a single point in time lacks meaning. To evaluate progress we need to compare past and present performance, or present performance and future aspirations. Normally, comparisons are made across time within a country. Cross-national comparisons are typically confined to a single point in time, creating a league table ranking countries from top to bottom on a given social indicator. This creates more losers than winners; it is also static. Dynamic cross-national comparisons are needed to determine whether a country is not only making progress in relation to its own past, but also catching up in relation to other nations. This paper shows that the capacity of developing and developed nations to catch up depends not only on their starting point but also on whether they aim at a fixed or a moving target. It uses data about infant mortality and gender equality to show that conclusions differ not only according to nation but also according to the social condition being evaluated.
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