Wednesday, October 22, 2003
The Doing Business Index
Hernando de Soto has long advocated that the difficulty in starting up businesses is one of the biggest stumbling blocks to the spread of capitalism in the developing world. The World Bank goes one better and has put together a Doing Business Index, which ranks countries on 5 parameters (benchmarked to Jan 2003) -- Starting a Business, Hiring & Firing Workers, Enforcing Contracts, Getting Credit and Closing a Business.
The data set covers 133 economies. The sample includes 22 high-income OECD economies as benchmarks, 25 economies from Europe and Central Asia, 33 from Africa, 5 from South Asia, 21 from Latin America, 14 from the Middle East and North Africa and 13 from the East Asia and the Pacific region.
The principal data collection methods for the indicators are the study of the existing laws and regulations in each economy; targeted interviews with regulators or private sector professionals in each topic; and cooperative arrangements with other departments of the World Bank, other donor agencies, private consulting firms, business and law associations.
It takes 46 days to start a business in China, 88 in India and 152 in Brazil. By contrast, it takes 4 days to start a business in the United States.
The data set covers 133 economies. The sample includes 22 high-income OECD economies as benchmarks, 25 economies from Europe and Central Asia, 33 from Africa, 5 from South Asia, 21 from Latin America, 14 from the Middle East and North Africa and 13 from the East Asia and the Pacific region.
The principal data collection methods for the indicators are the study of the existing laws and regulations in each economy; targeted interviews with regulators or private sector professionals in each topic; and cooperative arrangements with other departments of the World Bank, other donor agencies, private consulting firms, business and law associations.
It takes 46 days to start a business in China, 88 in India and 152 in Brazil. By contrast, it takes 4 days to start a business in the United States.
