Semi-Peripheral Convergence: AI Governance Readiness in Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe — Replication Dataset

Comparative dataset on institutional readiness for AI governance between Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe (n=38 countries: 19 per region), built from four primary sources: 1. Government AI Readiness Index 2025 (8th edition, Oxford Insights, December 2025) — 6 pillars: Policy Capacity, AI Infrastructure, Governance, Public Sector Adoption, Development & Diffusion, Resilience. 2. Worldwide Governance Indicators, 2025 Revision (World Bank Group) — 6 institutional dimensions, 2024, absolute 0-100 scale. 3. World Development Indicators (World Bank Group) — net FDI inflows (% GDP, 2020-2024 average). 4. World Development Indicators (World Bank Group) — GDP per capita (current US$, 2023). New in v2: FDI and GDP per capita variables were added relative to v1, incorporated to (a) test high-technology FDI as a moderator of the institution→AI-readiness relationship — result: non-significant across two specifications (p=0.704 and p=0.835), reported with methodological transparency; and (b) diagnose collinearity between institutional quality and economic development (r=0.90, p<0.0001) as an explicit design limitation. This dataset supports the empirical findings of the paper "Semi-Peripheral Convergence: Institutional Quality and AI Governance Readiness in Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe" (target: Governance, Wiley), which proposes a semi-peripheral innovation systems framework and tests the association between institutional quality and AI governance readiness across both regions. See the included README.md for the full codebook, merging procedure, key findings, and AI use disclosure in dataset construction.