The Doing Business project provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 190 economies. This EOB 2020 report covers 11 indicator sets and 190 economies. Most indicator sets refer to a case scenario in the largest business city of each economy, except for 11 economies that have a population of more than 100 million as of 2013 (Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Russian Federation and the United States) where Doing Business, also collected data for the second largest business city.
The ease of doing business score captures the gap between an economy's performance and a measure of best practice across the entire sample of 41 indicators for 10 Doing Business topics (the labor market regulation indicators are excluded). For starting a business, for example, New Zealand and Georgia have the lowest number of procedures required (1). New Zealand also holds the shortest time to start a business (0.5 days), while Slovenia has the lowest cost (0.0).
Calculating the ease of doing business score for each economy involves two main steps. In the first step individual component indicators are normalized to a common unit where each of the 41 component indicators y (except for the total tax and contribution rate) is rescaled using the linear transformation (worst - y)/(worst - best). In this formulation, the highest score represents the best regulatory performance on the indicator across all economies since 2005 or the third year in which data for the indicator were collected.
Both the best regulatory performance and the worst regulatory performance are established every five years based on the Doing Business data for the year in which they are established and remain at that level for the five years regardless of any changes in data in interim years. Thus, an economy may establish the best regulatory performance for an indicator even though it may not have the highest score in a subsequent year. Conversely, an economy may score higher than the best regulatory performance if the economy reforms after the best regulatory performance is set. For example, the best regulatory performance for the time to get electricity is set at 18 days. In the Republic of Korea it now takes 13 days to get electricity while in the United Arab Emirates it takes just 10 days. Although the two economies have different times, both economies score 100 on the time to get electricity because they have exceeded the threshold of 18 days.
For scores such as those on the strength of legal rights index or the quality of land administration index, the best regulatory performance is set at the highest possible value (although no economy has yet reached that value in the case of the latter).
Due to the changes in methodologies, some variables are presented separately, given that they are not comparable given these said changes.
| Dataset type: | Time-Series |
| Dataset level: | Country |
(The World Bank Group,
2020)
The building Quality control index (0-15) (DB16-20 methodology) index ranges from 0 to 15 and is calculated on the basis of the following six indices: (i) quality of building regulations, (ii) quality control before construction, (iii) quality control during construction, (iv) quality control after construction, (v) liability and insurance regimes, and (vi) professional certifications.
More about this variableScore-Dealing with Construction Permits (DB06-15 methodology) measures the gap between an economy's performance and the regulatory best practice on the Dealing with Construction permits indicator components. It is calculated as the simple average of the scores for Procedures (number), Time (days), and Cost (a percentage of the warehouse value). The score ranges from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the worst regulatory performance and 100 the best regulatory performance.
More about this variableScore-Dealing with Construction Permits (DB16-20 methodology) measures the gap between an economy's performance and the regulatory best practice on the Dealing with Construction permits indicator components. It is calculated as the simple average of the scores for Procedures (number), Time (days), Cost (a percentage of the warehouse value), and the Building Quality Control Index. The score ranges from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the worst regulatory performance and 100 the best regulatory performance.
More about this variableEqual access to property rights index (-2 - 0) (DB17-20 methodology) evaluates whether married or unmarried women have equal access to property rights. Equal access to property rights can help to increase the competitiveness of an economy, or increase its labor force.
More about this variableScore-Enforcing contracts (DB04-15 methodology) measures the gap between an economy's performance and the regulatory best practice on the Enforcing Contracts indicator components. It is calculated as the simple average of the scores for Time (days), Cost (% of claim value) and Procedures (number). The score ranges from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the worst regulatory performance and 100 the best regulatory performance.
More about this variableScore-Enforcing contracts (DB17-20 methodology) measures the gap between an economy's performance and the regulatory best practice on the Enforcing Contracts indicator components. It is calculated as the simple average of the scores for Time (days), Cost (% of claim value) and Quality of judicial processes index. The Quality of judicial processes index is expanded to measure whether a woman's testimony carries the same evidentiary weight in court as a man's. The score ranges from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the worst regulatory performance and 100 the best regulatory performance.
More about this variableEase of doing business score (DB10-14 methodology) captures the gap between an economy's performance and a measure of best practice across the entire sample of 41 indicators for 10 Doing Business topics. The score ranges from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the worst regulatory performance and 100 the best regulatory performance. Calculating the ease of doing business score for each economy involves two main steps. In the first step individual component indicators are normalized to a common unit where each of the 41 component indicators y (except for the total tax and contribution rate) is rescaled using the linear transformation (worst - y)/(worst - best). In this formulation the highest score represents the best regulatory performance on the indicator across all economies since 2005 or the third year in which data for the indicator were collected. Both the best regulatory performance and the worst regulatory performance are established every five years based on the Doing Business data for the year in which they are established and remain at that level for the five years regardless of any changes in data in interim years. In the second step for calculating the ease of doing business score, the scores obtained for individual indicators for each economy are aggregated through simple averaging into one score, first for each topic and then across all 10 topics. For the ease of doing business score (DB10-14 methodology), the specific topic scores used are: Score-Starting a business, Score-Dealing with construction permits (DB06-15 methodology), Score-Getting electricity (DB10-15 methodology), Score-Registering property (DB05-15 methodology), Score-Getting credit (DB05-14 methodology), Score-Protecting minority investors (DB06-14 methodology), Score-Paying taxes (DB06-16 methodology), Score-Trading across borders (DB06-15 methodology), Score-Enforcing contracts (DB04-15 methodology), Score-Resolving insolvency (DB04-14 methodology).
More about this variableEase of doing business score (DB15 methodology) captures the gap between an economy's performance and a measure of best practice across the entire sample of 41 indicators for 10 Doing Business topics. The score ranges from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the worst regulatory performance and 100 the best regulatory performance. Calculating the ease of doing business score for each economy involves two main steps. In the first step individual component indicators are normalized to a common unit where each of the 41 component indicators y (except for the total tax and contribution rate) is rescaled using the linear transformation (worst - y)/(worst - best). In this formulation the highest score represents the best regulatory performance on the indicator across all economies since 2005 or the third year in which data for the indicator were collected. Both the best regulatory performance and the worst regulatory performance are established every five years based on the Doing Business data for the year in which they are established and remain at that level for the five years regardless of any changes in data in interim years. In the second step for calculating the ease of doing business score, the scores obtained for individual indicators for each economy are aggregated through simple averaging into one score, first for each topic and then across all 10 topics. For the ease of doing business score (DB15 methodology), the specific topic scores used are: Score-Starting a business, Score-Dealing with construction permits (DB06-15 methodology), Score-Getting electricity (DB10-15 methodology), Score-Registering property (DB05-15 methodology), Score-Getting credit (DB15-20 methodology), Score-Protecting minority investors (DB15-20 methodology), Score-Paying taxes (DB06-16 methodology), Score-Trading across borders (DB06-15 methodology), Score-Enforcing contracts (DB04-15 methodology), Score-Resolving insolvency (DB15-20 methodology).
More about this variableEase of doing business score (DB17-20 methodology) captures the gap between an economy's performance and a measure of best practice across the entire sample of 41 indicators for 10 Doing Business topics. The score ranges from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the worst regulatory performance and 100 the best regulatory performance. Calculating the ease of doing business score for each economy involves two main steps. In the first step individual component indicators are normalized to a common unit where each of the 41 component indicators y (except for the total tax and contribution rate) is rescaled using the linear transformation (worst - y)/(worst - best). In this formulation the highest score represents the best regulatory performance on the indicator across all economies since 2005 or the third year in which data for the indicator were collected. Both the best regulatory performance and the worst regulatory performance are established every five years based on the Doing Business data for the year in which they are established and remain at that level for the five years regardless of any changes in data in interim years. In the second step for calculating the ease of doing business score, the scores obtained for individual indicators for each economy are aggregated through simple averaging into one score, first for each topic and then across all 10 topics. For the ease of doing business score (DB17-20 methodology), the specific topic scores used are: Score-Starting a business, Score-Dealing with construction permits (DB16-20 methodology), Score-Getting electricity (DB16-20 methodology), Score-Registering property (DB17-20 methodology), Score-Getting credit (DB15-20 methodology), Score-Protecting minority investors (DB15-20 methodology), Score-Paying taxes (DB17-20 methodology), Score-Trading across borders (DB16-20 methodology), Score-Enforcing contracts (DB17-20 methodology), Score-Resolving insolvency.
More about this variableScore-Getting credit (DB05-14 methodology) measures the gap between an economy's performance and the regulatory best practice on the Getting Credit indicator components. The sub-indicators are weighted proportionally, according to their contribution to the total score, with a weight of 62.5% assigned to the strength of legal rights index and 37.5% to the depth of credit information index. The score ranges from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the worst regulatory performance and 100 the best regulatory performance.
More about this variableScore-Getting credit (DB15-20 methodology) measures the gap between an economy's performance and the regulatory best practice on the Getting Credit indicator components. The sub-indicators are weighted proportionally, according to their contribution to the total score, with a weight of 60% assigned to the strength of legal rights index and 40% to the depth of credit information index. The score ranges from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the worst regulatory performance and 100 the best regulatory performance.
More about this variableScore-Getting electricity (DB10-15 methodology) measures the gap between an economy's performance and the regulatory best practice on the Getting Electricity indicator. It calculated as the simple average of the scores for Procedures (number), Time (days) and Cost (% of income per capita). The score ranges from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the worst regulatory performance and 100 the best regulatory performance.
More about this variableScore-Getting electricity (DB16-20 methodology) measures the gap between an economy's performance and the regulatory best practice on the Getting Electricity indicator components. It is calculated as the simple average of the scores for Procedures (number), Time (days), Cost (% of income per capita), and Reliability of supply and transparency of tariff index. The score ranges from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the worst regulatory performance and 100 the best regulatory performance.
More about this variableLand dispute resolution index (0-8) (DB16-20 methodology) measures the accessibility of conflict resolution mechanisms and the extent of liability for entities or agents recording land transactions.
More about this variableScore-Protecting minority investors (DB04-14 methodology) measures the gap between an economy's performance and the regulatory best practice on the Protecting Minority Investors indicator components. It is calculated as the simple average of the scores for Extent of disclosure index (0-10), Extent of director liability index (0-10) and Ease of shareholder suits index (0-10) (DB06-14 methodology). The score ranges from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the worst regulatory performance and 100 the best regulatory performance.
More about this variableScore-Protecting minority investors (DB15-20 methodology) measures the gap between an economy's performance and the regulatory best practice on the Protecting Minority Investors indicator components. It is calculated as the simple average of the scores for Extent of conflict of interest regulation index (0-10) (DB15-20 methodology) and Extent of shareholder governance index (0-10) (DB15-20 methodology). The score ranges from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the worst regulatory performance and 100 the best regulatory performance.
More about this variableScore-Paying taxes (DB06-16 methodology) measures the gap between an economy's performance and the regulatory best practice on the Paying Taxes indicator components. It is calculated as the simple average of the scores for Payments (numbers per year), Time (hours per year), and the Total Tax and Contribution Rate (% of profit). The score ranges from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the worst regulatory performance and 100 the best regulatory performance.
More about this variableScore-Paying taxes (DB17-20 methodology) measures the gap between an economy's performance and the regulatory best practice on the Paying Taxes indicator components. It is calculated as the simple average of the scores for Payments (number per year), Time (hours), Total Tax and Contribution Rate (% of profits), and Postfiling index (0-100) (DB17-20 methodology). The score ranges from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the worst regulatory performance and 100 the best regulatory performance.
More about this variableQuality of land administration index (0-30) (DB17-20 methodology). This index ranges from 0 to 30 points and is based on five other indices: (i) reliability of infrastructure (0-8), (ii) transparency of information (0-6), (iii) geographic coverage (0-4), (iv) land dispute resolution (0-8) and (v) equal access to property rights (-2 to 0)
More about this variableScore-Resolving insolvency measures the gap between an economy's performance and the regulatory best practice on the Resolving Insolvency indicator components. It is calculated as the simple average of the scores for the Recovery Rate (cents on the dollar) and the Strength of Insolvency Framework Index (0-16). The score ranges from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the worst regulatory performance and 100 the best regulatory performance.
More about this variableReliability of supply and transparency of tariff index (0-8) (DB16-20 methodology) This index ranges from 0 to 8 and is calculated on the basis of the following six components: (i)Duration and frequency of power outages (0-3); (ii) Tools to monitor power outages (0-1); (iii) Tools to restore power supply (0-1); (iv) Regulatory monitoring of utilities' performance (0-1); (v) Financial deterrents aimed at limiting outages (0-1); and (vi) Transparency and accessibility of tariffs (0-1). An economy is eligible to obtain a score on the reliability of supply and transparency of tariffs index only if (i) the utility collects data on all types of outages (average total duration of outages per customer and the average number of outages per customer), including planned and unplanned outages, as well as load shedding, with the minimum outage time of not more than 5 minutes; and (ii) the SAIDI value is below a threshold of 100 hours and the SAIFI value is under 100 outages.
More about this variableScore-Registering Property (DB05-15 methodology) measures the gap between an economy's performance and the regulatory best practice on the Registering Property indicator components. It is calculated as the simple average of the scores for Procedures (number), Time (days), Cost (% of property value). The score ranges from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the worst regulatory performance and 100 the best regulatory performance.
More about this variableScore-Registering Property (DB17-20 methodology) measures the gap between an economy's performance and the regulatory best practice on the Registering Property indicator components. It is calculated as the simple average of the scores for Procedures (number), Time (days), Cost (% of property value), and Quality land administration system (0-30) (DB17-20 methodology). The score ranges from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the worst regulatory performance and 100 the best regulatory performance.
More about this variableScore-Starting a business measures the gap between an economy's performance and the regulatory best practice on the Starting a Business indicator components. It is calculated as the simple average of the scores for Procedures (number), Time (calendar days), Cost (% of income per capita), and Paid-in Minimum capital (% of income per capita). The scores for the following components are obtained as such: the score for Procedures (number) is calculated based on the average of scores for Procedures - Men (number) and Procedures - Women (number); the score for Time (calendar days) is calculated based on the average of scores for Time - Men (calendar days) and Time - Women (calendar days); and the score for Cost (% of income per capita) is calculated based on the average of scores for Cost - Men (% of income per capita) and Cost - Women (% of income per capita). The score ranges from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the worst regulatory performance and 100 the best regulatory performance.
More about this variableScore-Trading across Borders (DB06-15 methodology) measures the gap between an economy's performance and the regulatory best practice on the Trading across Borders indicator. It calculated as the simple average of the scores for Documents to export (number), Time to export (days), Cost to export (US dollar per container deflated), Documents to import (number), Time to import (days) and Cost to import (US dollar per container deflated). The score ranges from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the worst regulatory performance and 100 the best regulatory performance.
More about this variableScore-Trading across Borders (DB16-20 methodology) measures the gap between an economy's performance and the regulatory best practice on the Trading across Borders indicator components. It is calculated as the simple average of the scores for Time to export: Border compliance (hours), Cost to export: Border compliance (US dollar), Time to export: Documentary compliance (hours), Cost to export: Documentary compliance (US dollar), Time to import: Border compliance (hours), Cost to import: Border compliance (US dollar), Time to import: Documentary compliance (hours) and Cost to import: Documentary compliance (US dollar). The score ranges from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the worst regulatory performance and 100 the best regulatory performance.
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