Recent research demonstrates that the quality of public institutions is crucial for a number of important environmental, social, economic, and political outcomes, and thereby human well-being broadly conceived. The Quality of Government (QoG) approach directs attention to issues such as impartiality in the exercise of public power, professionalism in public service delivery, effective measures against corruption, and meritocracy instead of patronage and nepotism. The 38 chapters in this handbook offer a comprehensive, state of the art overview of this rapidly expanding research field and also identify viable avenues for future research.