Ease of Doing Business Index

Ease of Doing Business Index - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia a:lang(ar),a:lang(ckb),a:lang(fa),a:lang(kk-arab),a:lang(mzn),a:lang(ps),a:lang(ur){text-decoration:none}a.new,#quickbar a.new{color:#ba0000} /* cache key: enwiki:resourceloader:filter:minify-css:4:c88e2bcd56513749bec09a7e29cb3ffa */ if ( window.mediaWiki ) { mw.config.set({"wgCanonicalNamespace": "", "wgCanonicalSpecialPageName": false, "wgNamespaceNumber": 0, "wgPageName": "Ease_of_Doing_Business_Index", "wgTitle": "Ease of Doing Business Index", "wgCurRevisionId": 462947863, "wgArticleId": 6866136, "wgIsArticle": true, "wgAction": "view", "wgUserName": null, "wgUserGroups": ["*"], "wgCategories": ["Articles needing cleanup from August 2011", "All pages needing cleanup", "Articles needing link rot cleanup from August 2011", "Articles to be merged from November 2010", "All articles to be merged", "World Bank", "Business law", "Administrative law", "Economic policy", "International rankings"], "wgBreakFrames": false, "wgRestrictionEdit": [], "wgRestrictionMove": [], "wgSearchNamespaces": [0], "wgFlaggedRevsParams": {"tags": {"status": {"levels": 1, "quality": 2, "pristine": 3}}}, "wgStableRevisionId": null, "wgVectorEnabledModules": {"collapsiblenav": true, "collapsibletabs": true, "editwarning": true, "expandablesearch": false, "footercleanup": false, "sectioneditlinks": false, "simplesearch": true, "experiments": true}, "wgWikiEditorEnabledModules": {"toolbar": true, "dialogs": true, "hidesig": true, "templateEditor": false, "templates": false, "preview": false, "previewDialog": false, "publish": false, "toc": false}, "wgTrackingToken": "73c014ffcb03f04b2e0f26fb71082ca3", "wikilove-recipient": "", "wikilove-edittoken": "+\\", "wikilove-anon": 0, "mbEditToken": "+\\", "Geo": {"city": "", "country": ""}, "wgNoticeProject": "wikipedia"}); } if ( window.mediaWiki ) { mw.loader.load(["mediawiki.page.startup"]); } Ease of Doing Business Index From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This article uses bare URLs for citations. Please consider adding full citations so that the article remains verifiable. Several templates and the Reflinks tool are available to assist in formatting. (Reflinks documentation) (August 2011) It has been suggested that Doing Business Report be merged into this article or section. (Discuss) Proposed since November 2010. World map of the Ease of Doing Business Index, circa September 2009. Green nations rank higher, red nations lower. Grey represents nations lacking sufficient data. Each colour represents one quartile of the ranked nations. The Ease of Doing Business Index is an index created by the World Bank.1 Higher rankings indicate better, usually simpler, regulations for businesses and stronger protections of property rights. Empirical research funded by the World Bank to justify their work show that the effect of improving these regulations on economic growth is strong.2 "Empirical research is needed to establish the optimal level of business regulation—for example, what the duration of court procedures should be and what the optimal degree of social protection is. The indicators compiled in the Doing Business project allow such research to take place. Since the start of the project in November 2001, more than 800 academic papers have used one or more indicators constructed in Doing Business and the related background papers by its authors."3 Contents 1 Methodology 2 Research and influence 3 Criticism 4 Ranking 5 Notes 6 External links Methodology The index is based on the study of laws and regulations, with the input and verification by more than 8,000 government officials, lawyers, business consultants, accountants and other professionals in 183 economies who routinely advise on or administer legal and regulatory requirements. The Ease of Doing Business index is meant to measure regulations directly affecting businesses and does not directly measure more general conditions such as a nation's proximity to large markets, quality of infrastructure, inflation, or crime. A nation's ranking on the index is based on the average of 10 subindices: Starting a Business - Procedures, time, cost and minimum capital to open a new business Dealing with construction permits - Procedures, time and cost to build a warehouse Employing workers - Difficulty of hiring index, rigidity of hours of index, difficulty of redundancy index, rigidity of employment index, redundancy costs Registering property - Procedures, time and cost to register commercial real estate Getting credit - Strength of legal rights index, depth of credit information index Protecting investors - Indices on the extent of disclosure, extent of director liability and ease of shareholder suits Paying taxes - Number of taxes paid, hours per year spent preparing tax returns and total tax payable as share of gross profit Trading across borders - Number of documents, cost and time necessary to export and import Enforcing contracts - Procedures, time and cost to enforce a debt contract Closing a business - Index of recovery rate which is a function of time, cost and other factors such as lending rate and the likelihood of the company continuing to operate 4 For example, according to the Doing Business 2010 report, Australia ranked third on the first subindex "Starting a business" behind only New Zealand and Canada. In Australia there are 2 procedures required to start a business which take on average 2 days to complete. The official cost is 0.8% of the Gross National Income per capita. There is no minimum capital requirement. By contrast, in Guinea-Bissau which ranked among the worst (183rd out of 183) on this same subindex, there are 16 procedures required to start a business taking 213 days to complete. The official cost is 323.0% of the gross national income per capita. A minimum capital investment of 1006.6% of the gross national income per capita is required. While fewer and simpler regulations often imply higher rankings, this is not always the case. Protecting the rights of creditors and investors, as well as establishing or upgrading property and credit registries, may mean that more regulation is needed. Research and influence More than 800 academic papers have used data from the index. The effect of improving regulations on economic growth is claimed to be very strong. Moving from the worst one-fourth of nations to the best one-fourth implies a 2.3 percentage point increase in annual growth.5 The various subcomponents of the index in themselves provide concrete suggestions for improvement. Many of them may be relatively easy to implement and uncontroversial (except perhaps among corrupt officials who may gain from onerous regulations requiring bribes to bypass). As such, the index has influenced many nations to improve their regulations. Several have explicitly targeted to reach a minimum position on the index, for example the top 25 list. Between June 2008 and May 2009, Doing Business recorded 287 reforms in 131 economies, 20% more than in the year before. The 10 top reformers were Rwanda, Kyrgyz Republic, Macedonia (FYROM), Belarus, United Arab Emirates, Moldova, Colombia, Tajikistan, Egypt, Arab Rep.and Liberia.6 The correlations between the subindices are low, which suggest that countries rarely score universally well or universally badly on the indicators. In other words, there is usually much room for partial reform even in the best ranking nations.4 The annual Reformers' Club event brings together individuals from top reformer countries who have been instrumental in initiating and implementing business environment reform. These reformers are acknowledged for their success in improving the ease of doing business in their country.7 Presentations and case studies are available online.8 Somewhat similar annual reports are the Indices of Economic Freedom and the Global Competitiveness Report. They, especially the later, look at many more factors that affect economic growth, like inflation and infrastructure. These factors may however be more subjective and diffuse since many are measured using surveys and they may be more difficult to change quickly compared to regulations. According to some critics, however, some of the research lacks the rigor of a coherent economic theory, contains unstated ideological biases, and too much of it is undertaken by individuals closely associated with the index and reforms, so it is not sufficiently independent to be fully credible.9 This blanket criticism is often offered by those with their own ideological bias. Criticism The Doing Business methodology regarding labor regulations has been criticized because of the support for flexible employment regulations.10 For instance, the easier it is to dismiss a worker for economic reasons in a country, the more one goes up in the rankings. The Employing Workers index was revised in Doing Business 2008 to be in full compliance with the 188 International Labour Organization conventions. A country can have all ILO conventions ratified and still rank #1 on the Ease of Employing Workers. As a further step, according to the Report 2010, Doing business plans to develop a new worker protection indicator, a process that will benefit from the advice of a working group with broad stakeholder representation. The ILO, which has leadership on the core labor standards, will serve as an essential source of guidance in this process. In 2008 the World Bank Group's Independent Evaluation Group, a semi-independent watchdog within the World Bank Group, published an evaluation of the Doing Business index.11 The report, titled Doing Business: An Independent Evaluation, contained both praise and criticism of Doing Business. The report recommended that Doing Business be clearer about what is and is not measured, disclose changes to published data, recruit more informants, and simplify the Paying Taxes indicator. In April 2009 the World Bank issued a note with revisions to the Employing Workers index.12 The note explained that scoring for the Employing Workers indicator would be updated in Doing Business 2010 to give favorable scores for complying with relevant ILO conventions. The Employing Workers indicator was also removed as a guidepost for Country Policy and Institutional Assessments, which help determine resources provided to IDA countries. A study commissioned by the Norwegian government alleges methodological weaknesses, an uncertainty in the ability of the indicators to capture the underlying business climate, and a general worry that many countries may find it easier to change their ranking in Doing Business than to change the underlying business environment.9 Ranking The most recent rankings come from the "Doing Business 2012" report.13 Singapore topped the ranking on Ease of Doing Business for the sixth year.14 Based on Singapore's experience, IDA International is collaborating with public agencies in several countries in the areas such as ICT strategy, national infocomm planning and solutions implementation that can help increase the ease of doing business. 2012 Rank 2011 Rank 2010 Rank 2009 Rank Country/Region 1 1 1 1  Singapore 2 2 2 2  Hong Kong 3 3 3 3  New Zealand 4 5 4 4  United States 5 6 6 5  Denmark 6 8 10 10  Norway 7 4 5 6  United Kingdom 8 16 19 23  South Korea 9 15 14 11  Iceland 10 9 7 7  Ireland 11 13 16 14  Finland 12 11 13 15  Saudi Arabia 13 7 8 8  Canada 14 14 18 17  Sweden 15 10 9 9  Australia 16 12 13 16  Georgia 17 19 12 12  Thailand 18 21 23 21  Malaysia 19 22 25 27  Germany 20 18 15 13  Japan 21 24 27 29  Latvia 22 38 32 69  Macedonia 23 20 17 24  Mauritius 24 17 24 22  Estonia 25 33 46 61  Taiwan (Republic of China) 26 27 21 19  Switzerland 27 23 26 25  Lithuania 28 25 22 20  Belgium 29 26 31 31  France 30 31 48 48  Portugal 31 30 30 28  Netherlands 32 32 28 26  Austria 33 40 33 47  United Arab Emirates 34 29 29 30  Israel 35 34 34 32  South Africa 36 50 39 37  Qatar 37 42 53 57  Slovenia 38 28 20 18  Bahrain 39 43 49 40  Chile 40 37 40 36  Cyprus 41 36 56 65  Peru 42 39 37 49  Colombia 43 47 35 33  Puerto Rico 44 49 62 51  Spain 45 58 67 143  Rwanda 46 55 69 73  Tunisia 47 59 63 64  Kazakhstan 48 41 42 35  Slovakia 49 57 65 60  Oman 50 45 64 53  Luxembourg 51 46 47 41  Hungary 52 53 36 34  Saint Lucia 53 35 51 55  Mexico 54 52 45 39  Botswana 55 48 43 50  Armenia 56 66 71 77  Montenegro 57 64 50 44  Antigua and Barbuda 58 71 52 46  Tonga 59 51 44 42  Bulgaria 60 61 57 68  Samoa 61 72 77 83  Panama 62 70 72 72  Poland 63 67 92 87  Ghana 64 63 74 66  Czech Republic 65 88 83 76  Dominica 66 54 38 38  Azerbaijan 67 74 61 52  Kuwait 68 97 81 78  Trinidad and Tobago 69 68 58 82  Belarus 70 44 41 80  Kyrgyzstan 71 65 73 63  Turkey 72 56 55 45  Romania 73 92 91 88  Grenada 74 96 104 96  Solomon Islands 75 75 70 62  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 76 60 59 58  Vanuatu 77 62 54 43  Fiji 78 69 66 54  Namibia 79 85 87 71  Maldives 80 84 103 110  Croatia 81 90 94 108  Moldova 82 82 82 89  Albania 83 112 96 94  Brunei 84 76 90 99  Zambia 85 77 68 59  Bahamas 86 73 60 56  Mongolia 87 80 78 74  Italy 88 81 75 67  Jamaica 89 102 105 97  Sri Lanka 90 124 114 109  Uruguay 91 79 89 86  China 92 89 88 90  Serbia 93 99 80 75  Belize 94 114 128 130  Morocco 95 87 76 70  Saint Kitts and Nevis 96 111 100 104  Jordan 97 101 110 117  Guatemala 98 78 93 91  Vietnam 99 105 99 103  Yemen 100 109 109 100  Greece 101 103 102 95  Papua New Guinea 102 106 124 122  Paraguay 103 95 111 105  Seychelles 104 113 108 101  Lebanon 105 83 85 85  Pakistan 106 108 98 93  Marshall Islands 107 116 123 123  Nepal 108 91 86 102  Dominican Republic 109 98 95 84  Kenya 110 94 106 116  Egypt 111 104 107 111  Ethiopia 112 86 84 81  El Salvador 113 115 118 112  Argentina 114 100 101 98  Guyana 115 93 79 79  Kiribati 116 120 97 92  Palau 117 119 113 107  Kosovo 118 117 117 113  Nicaragua 119 132 146 147  Cape Verde 120 123 120 118  Russia 121 125 121 120  Costa Rica 122 107 119 115  Bangladesh 123 122 112 106  Uganda 124 118 115 114  Swaziland 125 110 116 119  Bosnia and Herzegovina 126 127 129 127  Brazil 127 128 131 126  Tanzania 128 131 141 136  Honduras 129 121 122 129  Indonesia 130 130 138 133  Ecuador 131 135 139 137  West Bank and Gaza 132 134 133 132  India 133 137 125 121  Nigeria 134 144 143 138  Syria 135 154 154 149  Sudan 136 148 144 141  Philippines 137 140 134 144  Madagascar 138 147 145 139  Cambodia 139 126 135 140  Mozambique 140 141 127 125  Federated States of Micronesia 141 143 148 156  Sierra Leone 142 142 126 124  Bhutan 143 138 130 128  Lesotho 144 129 137 142  Iran 145 133 132 131  Malawi 146 153 156 162  Mali 147 139 152 164  Tajikistan 148 136 136 134  Algeria 149 146 140 135  Gambia 150 151 147 155  Burkina Faso 151 155 149 159  Liberia 152 145 142 145  Ukraine 153 149 161 158  Bolivia 154 152 157 152  Senegal 155 164 170 169  Equatorial Guinea 156 156 158 151  Gabon 157 159 162 153  Comoros 158 161 155 148  Suriname 159 165 166 161  Mauritania 160 167 160 168  Afghanistan 161 168 171 167  Cameroon 162 160 165 166  Togo 163 178 180 180  São Tomé and Príncipe 164 166 153 150  Iraq 165 171 167 165  Laos 166 150 150 146  Uzbekistan 167 169 168 163  Côte d'Ivoire 168 174 164 173  Timor-Leste 169 181 176 177  Burundi 170 158 163 157  Djibouti 171 157 159 160  Zimbabwe 172 163 169 170  Angola 173 173 174 174  Niger 174 162 151 154  Haiti 175 170 172 172  Benin 176 176 181 181  Guinea-Bissau 177 172 177 178  Venezuela 178 175 182 182  Democratic Republic of the Congo 179 179 173 171  Guinea 180 180 175 175  Eritrea 181 177 179 179  Congo 182 182 183 183  Central African Republic 183 183 178 176  Chad North Korea, Turkmenistan, Somalia, Libya, Cuba and the disputed territory Western Sahara are not ranked. Notes ^ Home - Doing Business - The World Bank Group ^ http://www.doingbusiness.org/documents/growthpaper_03_17.pdf ^ Ease of doing business: An appendix, Page 93. ^ a b http://www.doingbusiness.org/PapersLinks/Open.aspx?id=6543 ^ [1] ^ http://www.doingbusiness.org/documents/fullreport/2010/DB10-full-report.pdf ^ Reformers Club Home ^ Reformers Club Case Studies ^ a b http://ifiwatchnet.org/sites/ifiwatchnet.org/files/Doing%20Business_ESOPanalysis.pdf ^ ITUC-CSI-IGB - International Trade Union Confederation ^ [2] ^ EWI Revisions ^ "doingbusiness.org economy rankings". http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings.  ^ "Singapore Tops World Bank Survey". Bloomberg. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-04/singapore-tops-world-bank-survey-on-ease-of-doing-business-for-fifth-year.html. Retrieved 23 August 2011.  External links doingbusiness.org – Doing business map v · d · eLists of countries by political rankings Freedom Trade · Press (Freedom House · Reporters Without Borders) · Economic (Fraser Institute · The Heritage Foundation/The Wall Street Journal) Corruption Bribes · Corruption perceptions Competitiveness e-Government · Nation Brands Index · Failed States Index · Composite Index of National Capability · Comprehensive National Power · National Power Index History Empire size · First human settlement · Flag adoption date · Formation date Rights Democracy Index · Privacy · Property rights Other Ease of doing business · Globalization Lists by country · List of international rankings · List of top international rankings by country