The MCC scorecards measure performance on the policy criteria mandated in MCC's authorizing legislation. By using information collected from independent sources, MCC's country selection process allows for an objective, comparable analysis across candidate countries.
MCC prioritizes indicators that:
- use an analytically-rigorous methodology and objective, high-quality data,
- are publicly available,
- have broad country-coverage among MCC candidate countries,
- are comparable across countries,
- have a clear theoretical or empirical link to economic growth,
- are policy-linked, (i.e. measure factors that governments can influence), and
- have appropriate consistency in results from year to year.
More information about the indicators used to determine country eligibility for MCC program assistance is available in the table and in MCC's Guide to the Indicators.
Indicator Performance
A country is considered to "pass" a given indicator if it performs better than the median score in its income group or the absolute threshold (for certain indicators – see below). A country is considered to "pass" the scorecard if it: (i) "passes" at least 11 of the 22 indicators; (ii) "passes" the Personal Freedom indicator; and (iii) "passes" either the Control of Corruption indicator or the Government Accountability indicator. For technical specifics regarding how these medians are calculated see the Guide to Indicators--Note on Calculating Medians. Indicators with absolute thresholds in lieu of a median include:
- Inflation, on which a country's inflation rate must be under a fixed ceiling of 15 percent;
- Government Accountability, on which countries must score above 17; and
- Personal Freedom, on which countries must score above 25.
The Board also takes into consideration whether a country performs substantially worse in any category (Ruling Justly, Investing in People, or Economic Freedom) than it does on the overall scorecard. While the indicator methodology is an important basis for determining which countries will be eligible for assistance, the Board also considers supplemental information and takes into account factors such as time lags and gaps in the data used to determine indicator scores. The Guide to the Indicators outlines MCC's methodology for constructing all indicators. MCC's Open Data website contains the raw data for all indicators. Beyond the scorecard, the Board also considers supplemental information on the opportunity to advance America First priorities and invest in shared prosperity.