CBR Leximetric Datasets

The CBR Leximetric Datasets are the product of work carried out at the Centre for Business Research (CBR) in Cambridge, beginning in 2005 when the Centre received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council to carry out a research project on law, development and finance. Further funding from the ESRC, the European Union's FP5 and FP6 programmes, the Isaac Newton Trust, the Cambridge Political Economy Society and the International Labour Organization made it possible to expand the original datasets to their current state. As of July 2016, there are three principal datasets, coding, respectively, for labour laws in 117 countries between 1970 and 2013 (the CBR Labour Regulation Index), shareholder protection in 30 countries between 1990 and 2013 (the CBR Extended Shareholder Protection Index), and creditor protection in 30 countries between 1990 and 2013 (the CBR Extended Creditor Protection Index). The coding of legal data is carried out using a so-called leximetric coding methodology developed in the CBR and more fully explained in the codebooks which accompany each of the datasets. Taken together, the datasets provide a unique time series which enables researchers and other research users to track changes in labour, company and insolvency law over long periods of time for many countries. A distinguishing feature of these datasets is that all legal sources for the data coding are fully described in the relevant codebooks, thereby assisting transparency, external validity and replicability of results. The work of further developing the datasets on shareholder and creditor rights, so that they match the labour regulation index in terms of years and countries covered, is ongoing.

CBR词汇计量数据集（CBR Leximetric Datasets）系剑桥商业研究中心（Centre for Business Research，简称CBR）研究工作的成果。该项目始于2005年，彼时该中心获经济和社会研究理事会（Economic and Social Research Council，ESRC）资助，启动法律、发展与金融领域的研究课题。后续依托ESRC、欧盟第五框架计划（FP5）与第六框架计划（FP6）、艾萨克·牛顿信托基金、剑桥政治经济学会及国际劳工组织的资助，初始数据集得以拓展至当前规模。截至2016年7月，该系列已形成三大核心数据集，分别针对1970年至2013年间117个国家的劳工法律开展编码工作，对应数据集为CBR劳工监管指数（CBR Labour Regulation Index）；针对1990年至2013年间30个国家的股东权益保护开展编码工作，对应数据集为CBR扩展股东保护指数（CBR Extended Shareholder Protection Index）；以及针对1990年至2013年间30个国家的债权人权益保护开展编码工作，对应数据集为CBR扩展债权人保护指数（CBR Extended Creditor Protection Index）。法律数据编码采用CBR研发的词汇计量编码法（leximetric coding methodology），各数据集配套的编码手册对该方法有详尽说明。整体而言，该系列数据集构建了独特的时间序列样本，可供研究者及其他科研用户追踪多国长期范围内的劳工、公司与破产法律变迁。该数据集的显著特色在于，所有用于数据编码的法律来源均在对应编码手册中完整披露，由此可提升研究结果的透明度、外部效度与可复现性。目前，针对股东与债权人权利相关数据集的扩容工作仍在推进，目标是使其覆盖的年份与国家范围与劳工监管指数保持一致。