[OPE] World Bank statistics and documentation on pro-business reforms

Since 2004 Doing Business has been tracking regulatory reforms aimed at improving the ease of doing business by measuring their impact on 10 indicator sets. The criteria evaluated are

Ease of Doing Business,
Starting a Business,
Dealing with Construction Permits,
Employing Workers,
Registering Property,
Getting Credit,
Protecting Investors,
Paying Taxes,
Trading Across Borders,
Enforcing Contracts, and
Closing a Business.

The rankings are here: http://www.doingbusiness.org/economyrankings/ The methodology is discussed here http://www.doingbusiness.org/documents/DB09Easeofdoingbusinessrankmethod.pdf

Nearly 1,000 reforms have been captured since 2004. For the fifth year in a row, Eastern Europe and Central Asia led the world's regions, with more than 90 percent of its countries making reforms -the region accounts for a third of all reforms observed since Doing Business 2004. In 2007 Eastern Europe and Central Asia surpassed East Asia and Pacific in the average ease of doing business and has maintained its place this year. Around the world, more regulatory reforms were recorded between June 2007 and June 2008 than in any previous year-113 national economies implemented 239 reforms. http://www.doingbusiness.org/Features/Feature-2008-22.aspx

The trend is moving eastward as newcomers join the list of economies making the most reforms. Azerbaijan is the world's leading reformer of business regulations this year, with improvements in seven of the 10 areas studied by the report. Africa also had a record year for regulatory reforms, with 28 countries completing 58 reforms that make it easier to do business-more than in any other year. And three of the world's top 10 economies that reformed their business regulations are from the region. The top 10 are, in order, Azerbaijan, Albania, the Kyrgyz Republic, Belarus, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Botswana, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Egypt.

Doing Business rankings do not reflect such areas as macroeconomic policy, quality of infrastructure, currency volatility, investor perceptions, or crime rates. Singapore leads the global rankings on the overall regulatory ease of doing business for a third consecutive year. New Zealand is runner-up, and the United States third. Bahrain and Mauritius join the ranks of the top 25 this year. http://www.doingbusiness.org/Features/Feature-2008-21.aspx

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Received on Thu Sep 11 16:07:42 2008