Replication Data for: Institutional overlap in global governance and the design of intergovernmental organizations

How does the increasingly dense network of overlapping institutions in global governance affect the design of intergovernmental organizations (IGOs)? We argue that institutional overlap can unleash mimicking dynamics whereby states design new IGOs using the design of existing organizations that engage in similar issue areas and perform similar governance tasks for similar member states as templates. Using design templates from the reference group of overlapping institutions is a strategy for boundedly rational designers in situations of complexity because it reduces uncertainty and lowers the costs of identifying suitable institutional solutions. Overlap therefore increases the design similarity between new and pre-existing IGOs, specifically where pre-existing organizations have institutional designs that made them endure. Introducing a new measure of institutional overlap in global governance and new data on the design and governance tasks of the 534 IGOs from the Correlates of War Project, we corroborate our argument using regression analyses. Our results hold important lessons for theories of institutional design, regime complexity, and global governance more broadly.

全球治理领域中日益密集的重叠性制度网络，会对政府间国际组织（Intergovernmental Organizations，IGOs）的设计产生何种影响？本文认为，制度重叠可催生模仿机制：成员国以开展相似议题领域治理、承担同类治理任务且服务于同类成员国的既有国际组织的制度设计为模板，开展新的政府间国际组织的设计工作。对于处于复杂情境中的有限理性设计者而言，采用重叠制度参照组的设计模板是一种可行策略，该策略可降低不确定性，减少识别适配性制度解决方案的成本。因此，制度重叠会提升新建与既有政府间国际组织之间的设计相似度，尤其当既有组织的制度设计使其得以长期存续时，该效应将更为突出。
本文构建了全球治理制度重叠的全新测度指标，并基于战争相关因素项目（Correlates of War Project）所收录的534个政府间国际组织的制度设计与治理任务数据构建全新数据集，通过回归分析验证了本文的核心论点。本研究结果对制度设计理论、制度复杂性理论以及更广泛的全球治理相关理论均具有重要启示意义。