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Normally, we control for geography variables in some economic studies. However, in the study examining how well the government implements the laws and orders, my advisor told me that we can think of the "geopolitical variables".

From Reynaud(2008), geopolitic is

Geopolitics traditionally indicates the links and causal relationships between political power and geographic space; in concrete terms it is often seen as a body of thought assaying specific strategic prescriptions based on the relative importance of land power

In another word, "Geopolitics" is how geographical factor affects the national behaviors. More specific, geopolitic examines some factors as: geography, natural resources, population,... affects a country's foreign policy and the position of this country in international system

I am wondering if there is any popular geopolitical variable in published resource?

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The choice of variables will depend on what, exactly, you try to model. Social policies, economic policies, etc?

A key resource are the world bank's world development indicators. You find indices there regarding the regulatory environment, human capital, social protection, etc.

One of the better known indicators is the "Ease of doing business" one, also from the world bank.

The world bank has also indicators dedicated specifically to the rule of law/governance here, such as "rule of law" & "government effectiveness".

Regarding Covid-Restrictions: check out the government response tracker (also called stringency index) by the Blavatnik School of Governance.

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    $\begingroup$ @BeautifulMindset: by implementing to you mean applying/executing? Any law in particular, or "law" in general. $\endgroup$
    – BrsG
    Commented Jul 29, 2021 at 15:02
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    $\begingroup$ Added further sources on governance & covid restrictions. $\endgroup$
    – BrsG
    Commented Jul 29, 2021 at 15:11
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    $\begingroup$ @BeautifulMindset: I think all the most of the indicators carried by the sources I mentioned would typically be qualified as geopolitical. They are geopolitical in particular because they allow variables related to policies across geographies. For example you can rank all countries by their "rule of law" index. So not sure what more do you want :). $\endgroup$
    – BrsG
    Commented Jul 29, 2021 at 15:23
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    $\begingroup$ For example: the variable "government effectiveness" captures, among others: "..the quality of policy formulation and implementation, and the credibility of the government's commitment to such policies.." $\endgroup$
    – BrsG
    Commented Jul 29, 2021 at 15:30
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    $\begingroup$ Alright, I think I understand. You could consider: spending on the military, trade agreements, research agreements and size of trade relationships, voting power in international bodies, closeness of government systems, to which countries does a given country provide aid, etc. I don't know of any particular sources in that regard, and you might need to collect/construct such measures individually. Btw, the quote you refer to seems more a motivation for the analysis of the underlying paper rather than a strict one. $\endgroup$
    – BrsG
    Commented Jul 29, 2021 at 15:45

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