Over the past 40 years, PRS has built an international clientele that is beyond compare: from the Americas to the Middle East; from Europe, Asia and Africa. Along the way we have garnered a reputation for analytical rigor and breadth, and for a measure of professionalism and sophistication that can only come from decades of experience.

Our unique geopolitical risk data, analyses and forecasts are used by the world’s largest and most prominent institutional investors, transnational companies (from resource extraction companies to the largest technology firms globally), multilateral organizations, central banks and sovereign wealth funds, and universities of all disciplinary stripes.

For our institutional investors, the ICRG data allows asset managers to adopt a more selective approach to country exposure, as political factors (among other idiosyncratic influences) play an increasingly important role in trading selections for portfolio and tactical decisions, especially those bound by ESG requirements.

The university sector has long relied on our work to generate empirical findings across a range of disciplines, from finance and economics, to political science data analytics, and even geography. Since the 1980s, the results of this work have been published in leading peer-reviewed academic and trade journals.

Transnational companies use our products to explore new markets, develop unique risk management stratagems, and form realistic hurdle rates. Firms also see our work as vital component of their political risk insurance coverage.

Many of the world’s development banks and lending agencies also use our products to help balance their global portfolios, manage on-lending or programming initiatives, and to conduct research in econometric modeling.

No other geopolitical risk firm can claim this mantle.

"The advantage of the ICRG rating is that it presents a comprehensible risk structure including liquidity, solvency, macroeconomic and external shocks that affect the probability of sovereign default for a given country using 22 risk components within 3 subcategories of risk indices…"

W Gbohoui, R Ouedraogo and Y Modeste

Sub-Saharan Africa’s Risk Perception Premium: In the Search of Missing Factors, IMF Working Paper Series, WP/23/130

"The ICRG provides researchers with a comprehensive, consistent, and robust data set covering over 40 years. I use the data in my cross-national research, and it has been critical in quantifying country-specific measures in panel data analysis."

Brandon Parsons, PhD

Practitioner Faculty of Economics, Graziadio Business School, Pepperdine University

"ICRG measures also reflect the degree of social tension within society (for socio-economic, religious, or ethnic reasons) and the possibility of internal or external military conflict, all of which could affect large infrastructure projects and the repayment of the loans provided for their development."

Jakob Müllner & Sinziana Dorobantu

Overcoming political risk in developing economies through non-local debt. Journal of International Business Policy, 2022.

"For researchers interested in understanding political risks across a larger number of countries over time, the ICRG data and its subcomponents provide valuable information to study the causes and effects of such risks. By leveraging this data, researchers can gain a deeper understanding of the factors that drive political instability and make informed decisions based on their analysis."

Prof. Dr. Mohammad Reza Farzanegan

Professor of Economics of the Middle East, Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies, School of Business & Economics, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany

"…widely used in the finance industry as a means of assessing the political stability of countries on a comparable basis."

I Filippou, AE Gozluklu, MP Taylor

Global Political Risk and Currency Momentum.’ Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, (2018)

"The selection of the ICRG as the institutional proxy reflected both its wider cross-country and time-series coverage as well as its broader range of relevant institutional indicators."

L Cubeddu, et al.

The External Balance Assessment Methodology: 2018 Update," IMF Working Paper (19/65), Mar 2019.

“THE BEST SOURCE OF POLITICAL RISK ASSESSMENT INFORMATION…”

Professor William Eimicke

Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs

"Christopher’s diverse and enduring presence in the geopolitical risk field has been instrumental in making the International Country Risk Guide one of the most authoritative and respected quant-driven risk and forecasting series globally."

Dr Nassar Abaalkhail

Chairman of the G20 Anti-corruption Working Group, Assistant to the President for International Collaboration, Control and Anti-Corruption Authority Saudi Arabia

"A LEADING INVESTMENT RISK COMPANY…"

Jim Rogers

Co-founder (with George Soros) of the Quantum Fund, and Chairman of Rogers Holdings and Beeland Interests, Inc.

"HIGHLY VALUABLE…FOR THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF ANTI-CORRUPTION PRACTICES."

Dr Jin-young Kwak

Vice-Chair of South Korea’s Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission

"THE MOST AUTHORITATIVE IN THE FIELD…"

Professor Reid Click

George Washington University School of Business

"THE ONLY RELIABLE, CONSISTENT, AND VALID MEASURE OF PROPERTY RIGHTS PROTECTION…"

Professor Rollin Tusalem

Arkansas State University

"…GREAT PREDICTIVE VALUE WITH RESPECT TO FUTURE EQUITY RETURNS."

Gene Epstein

Barron’s

"…REFLECTS CURRENT EVENTS IN A WAY STRUCTURAL MEASURES CANNOT."

Professor Robert Weiner

George Washington University School of Business

"A vital source for managing and advising investment funds that focus on volatile countries, both emerging and developed."

Dr Michel-Henry Bouchet

Distinguished Finance Professor, Skema Business School, Paris.

"…One of the world's most frequently used resources for evaluating and forecasting international risk."

T Suleman & R Cermeño

“Country risk and volatility of stock returns: Panel-GARCH evidence for the Latin America's major five,” November, 2014.

"Because we sought to quantify the importance of political risk in stock returns, we used ICRG’s political component as our proxy for political risk."

RL Diamonte, et al.

“Political Risk in Emerging and Developed Markets.” Financial Analysts Journal, May/June 1996: 71.

"One of the most striking features of the [ICRG] data is the strong relationship between bureaucratic efficiency and political stability."

Eatzaz Ahmad, et al.

“Does Corruption Affect Economic Growth?” Latin American Journal of Economics, Vol 49, No 2, 2012: 277–305.

"ICRG ‘is forward-looking and reflects political risk as opposed to an aggregate or broad measure of country risk which also incorporates macro-economic factors.’ ‘[T]here is ample evidence in the literature that it correctly reflects that adverse effects of political risk on investment values across countries."

Professor Kwabena Kesse

"Sovereign Risk Channels and Exchange Rates," Quarterly Journal of Finance and Accounting, 2017.

"…[U]nlike other corruption data sources, ICRG is market-tested…financed by users (mainly international investors and business managers) who would be willing to pay a fee only if they perceive the data as sufficiently informative."

Mehmet Ugur

“Corruption’s Direct Effects on Per Capita Income Growth: A Meta-Analysis,” Journal of Economic Surveys, 2014.

"The ICRG index is second to none in academic circles given its long-term time series and its very useful composite index!"

Michel-Henry Bouchet

Skema Business School-UCA

"From managers of long/short US funds to cocoa commodity traders, all investors seek advance warnings of shifts in the geopolitical landscape. Christopher’s work on quantifying political risk is truly unique in the alternative data landscape. With over 40 years of data and a global coverage, PRS is a permanent favourite among TOGGLE users to gauge the political risk in their portfolios."

Giuseppe Sette

MBA, President, TOGGLE (NYC/London)

"…a widely used indicator to capture institutional and political risk."

IMF

Nepal: Selected Issues, Country Report No. 20/97, February 28, 2020

"…the ICRG data are comparable across countries, well established and have been used widely in the empirical literature."

TS Sedik and R Xu

“A Vicious Cycle: How Pandemics Lead to Economic Despair and Social Unrest,” IMF Working Paper, October 2020"

"…widely used in the finance industry as a means of assessing the political stability of countries on a comparable basis."

I Filippou, et al.

"Global Political Risk and Currency Momentum." Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 53.5 (2018)

"PRS is the only authoritative source of country risk analysis, with its comprehensive database, which is reliable and validated across countries and over time and reflected in its widespread usage."

Dr Manas Paul

Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad

The work of The PRS Group is always relevant and most interesting.

C Rodrigo Saez-Munoz

Provost, University of Business and International Studies Geneva, Switzerland

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