[marcosdumay]

The Tranparency International's index is a horrible measure.

It's more dependent on the press reporting corruption than of any other factor, for the extent that it measures anything real it focuses exclusively on small scale corruption, and it incredibly biased by cultural factors.

It's a mistake to use it to compare one country with another, and it's a mistake to use it to spot trends in a single place. AFAIK, it's a mistake to use it.

[MichaelZuo]

Does anyone even give them credibility in the first place…?

Such an exceedingly complex thing just seems improbable to take at face value, without an enormous amount of proof and well reasoned methodology backing it up.

[marcosdumay]

I've never seen a press outlet that didn't give them credibility.

A few times they notice that fighting against corruption is known to increase the index at a footnote somewhere. But that's rare.

[MichaelZuo]

I meant on HN, who takes mass media output at face value about anything that complex?