Dr Arjan Schakel has been assigned by the Directorate-General Regional and Urban Policy of the European Commission (EC) to update the Regional Authority Index for 43 democracies to 2016. The EC intends to use the revised scores for its seventh report on economic, social and territorial cohesion in the European Union. The regional authority index measures the authority exercised by regional governments and traces decentralisation. The regional authority index measures the authority exercised by regional governments and traces decentralisation and centralisation in 81 countries on an annual basis since 1950. The measurement has a long pedigree and was launched in a special issue of Regional and Federal studies in 2008 and was further developed in books published in 2010 (Routledge) and 2016 (Oxford University Press).