name: Latin America & the Caribbean (IDA & IBRD countries)


IndicatorName: Subsidies and other transfers (% of expense)

Limitationsandexceptions:
For most countries central government finance data have been consolidated into one account, but for others only budgetary central government accounts are available. Countries reporting budgetary data are noted in the country metadata. Because budgetary accounts may not include all central government units (such as social security funds), they usually provide an incomplete picture. In federal states the central government accounts provide an incomplete view of total public finance.

Data on government revenue and expense are collected by the IMF through questionnaires to member countries and by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Despite IMF efforts to standardize data collection, statistics are often incomplete, untimely, and not comparable across countries.

Longdefinition: Subsidies, grants, and other social benefits include all unrequited, nonrepayable transfers on current account to private and public enterprises; grants to foreign governments, international organizations, and other government units; and social security, social assistance benefits, and employer social benefits in cash and in kind.

Periodicity: Annual

Source: International Monetary Fund, Government Finance Statistics Yearbook and data files.

Statisticalconceptandmethodology:
The IMF's Government Finance Statistics Manual 2014, harmonized with the 2008 SNA, recommends an accrual accounting method, focusing on all economic events affecting assets, liabilities, revenues, and expenses, not just those represented by cash transactions. It accounts for all changes in stocks, so stock data at the end of an accounting period equal stock data at the beginning of the period plus flows over the period. The 1986 manual considered only debt stocks.

Government finance statistics are reported in local currency. Many countries report government finance data by fiscal year; see country metadata for information on fiscal year end by country.

Topic: Public Sector: Government finance: Expense

Aggregationmethod: Median

License_Type: CC BY-4.0

value: World Development Indicators

value: Public Sector


name: Subsidies and other transfers (% of expense)

sourceNote: Subsidies, grants, and other social benefits include all unrequited, nonrepayable transfers on current account to private and public enterprises; grants to foreign governments, international organizations, and other government units; and social security, social assistance benefits, and employer social benefits in cash and in kind.

sourceOrganization: International Monetary Fund, Government Finance Statistics Yearbook and data files.


Government Effectiveness: Estimate

IndicatorName: Government Effectiveness: Estimate

Longdefinition: Government Effectiveness captures perceptions of the quality of public services, the quality of the civil service and the degree of its independence from political pressures, the quality of policy formulation and implementation, and the credibility of the government's commitment to such policies. Estimate gives the country's score on the aggregate indicator, in units of a standard normal distribution, i.e. ranging from approximately -2.5 to 2.5.

Source: Detailed documentation of the WGI, interactive tools for exploring the data, and full access to the underlying source data available at www.govindicators.org.The WGI are produced by Daniel Kaufmann (Natural Resource Governance Institute and Brookings Institution) and Aart Kraay (World Bank Development Research Group).  Please cite Kaufmann, Daniel, Aart Kraay and Massimo Mastruzzi (2010).  "The Worldwide Governance Indicators:  Methodology and Analytical Issues".  World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 5430 (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1682130).  The WGI do not reflect the official views of the Natural Resource Governance Institute, the Brookings Institution, the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent.

Topic: Public Sector: Policy & institutions

Othernotes: The Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) are a research dataset summarizing the views on the quality of governance provided by a large number of enterprise, citizen and expert survey respondents in industrial and developing countries. These data are gathered from a number of survey institutes, think tanks, non-governmental organizations, international organizations, and private sector firms. The WGI do not reflect the official views of the Natural Resource Governance Institute, the Brookings Institution, the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent. The WGI are not used by the World Bank Group to allocate resources.

Relatedsourcelinks: Worldwide Governance Indicators website (https://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/)

sourceOrganization: Detailed documentation of the WGI, interactive tools for exploring the data, and full access to the underlying source data available at www.govindicators.org. The WGI are produced by Daniel Kaufmann (Natural Resource Governance Institute and Brookings Institution) and Aart Kraay (World Bank Development Research Group).  Please cite Kaufmann, Daniel, Aart Kraay and Massimo Mastruzzi (2010).  "The Worldwide Governance Indicators:  Methodology and Analytical Issues".  World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 5430 (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1682130).  The WGI do not reflect the official views of the Natural Resource Governance Institute, the Brookings Institution, the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent.


sourceNote: Government Effectiveness captures perceptions of the quality of public services, the quality of the civil service and the degree of its independence from political pressures, the quality of policy formulation and implementation, and the credibility of the government's commitment to such policies. Estimate gives the country's score on the aggregate indicator, in units of a standard normal distribution, i.e. ranging from approximately -2.5 to 2.5.


name: Fragile and conflict affected situations


name: Middle East & North Africa (excluding high income)


name: Europe & Central Asia (excluding high income)


name: Latin America & Caribbean (excluding high income)


name: Least developed countries: UN classification


name: Middle East & North Africa (IDA & IBRD countries)


name: Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income)


name: East Asia & Pacific (IDA & IBRD countries)


name: East Asia & Pacific (excluding high income)


name: Sub-Saharan Africa (IDA & IBRD countries)


name: Europe & Central Asia (IDA & IBRD countries)


IndicatorName: Government Effectiveness: Number of Sources

Longdefinition: Government Effectiveness captures perceptions of the quality of public services, the quality of the civil service and the degree of its independence from political pressures, the quality of policy formulation and implementation, and the credibility of the government's commitment to such policies.  Number of sources indicates the number of underlying data sources on which the aggregate estimate is based.


name: Government Effectiveness: Number of Sources

sourceNote: Government Effectiveness captures perceptions of the quality of public services, the quality of the civil service and the degree of its independence from political pressures, the quality of policy formulation and implementation, and the credibility of the government's commitment to such policies.  Number of sources indicates the number of underlying data sources on which the aggregate estimate is based.


IndicatorName: Government Effectiveness: Percentile Rank

Longdefinition: Government Effectiveness captures perceptions of the quality of public services, the quality of the civil service and the degree of its independence from political pressures, the quality of policy formulation and implementation, and the credibility of the government's commitment to such policies. Percentile rank indicates the country's rank among all countries covered by the aggregate indicator, with 0 corresponding to lowest rank, and 100 to highest rank.  Percentile ranks have been adjusted to correct for changes over time in the composition of the countries covered by the WGI.


name: Government Effectiveness: Percentile Rank

sourceNote: Government Effectiveness captures perceptions of the quality of public services, the quality of the civil service and the degree of its independence from political pressures, the quality of policy formulation and implementation, and the credibility of the government's commitment to such policies. Percentile rank indicates the country's rank among all countries covered by the aggregate indicator, with 0 corresponding to lowest rank, and 100 to highest rank.  Percentile ranks have been adjusted to correct for changes over time in the composition of the countries covered by the WGI.


IndicatorName: Government Effectiveness: Percentile Rank, Lower Bound of 90% Confidence Interval

Longdefinition: Government Effectiveness captures perceptions of the quality of public services, the quality of the civil service and the degree of its independence from political pressures, the quality of policy formulation and implementation, and the credibility of the government's commitment to such policies. Percentile rank indicates the country's rank among all countries covered by the aggregate indicator, with 0 corresponding to lowest rank, and 100 to highest rank.  Percentile ranks have been adjusted to correct for changes over time in the composition of the countries covered by the WGI.  Percentile Rank Lower refers to lower bound of 90 percent confidence interval for governance, expressed in percentile rank terms.


name: Government Effectiveness: Percentile Rank, Lower Bound of 90% Confidence Interval

sourceNote: Government Effectiveness captures perceptions of the quality of public services, the quality of the civil service and the degree of its independence from political pressures, the quality of policy formulation and implementation, and the credibility of the government's commitment to such policies. Percentile rank indicates the country's rank among all countries covered by the aggregate indicator, with 0 corresponding to lowest rank, and 100 to highest rank.  Percentile ranks have been adjusted to correct for changes over time in the composition of the countries covered by the WGI.  Percentile Rank Lower refers to lower bound of 90 percent confidence interval for governance, expressed in percentile rank terms.


IndicatorName: Government Effectiveness: Percentile Rank, Upper Bound of 90% Confidence Interval

Longdefinition: Government Effectiveness captures perceptions of the quality of public services, the quality of the civil service and the degree of its independence from political pressures, the quality of policy formulation and implementation, and the credibility of the government's commitment to such policies. Percentile rank indicates the country's rank among all countries covered by the aggregate indicator, with 0 corresponding to lowest rank, and 100 to highest rank.  Percentile ranks have been adjusted to correct for changes over time in the composition of the countries covered by the WGI.  Percentile Rank Upper refers to upper bound of 90 percent confidence interval for governance, expressed in percentile rank terms.


name: Government Effectiveness: Percentile Rank, Upper Bound of 90% Confidence Interval

sourceNote: Government Effectiveness captures perceptions of the quality of public services, the quality of the civil service and the degree of its independence from political pressures, the quality of policy formulation and implementation, and the credibility of the government's commitment to such policies. Percentile rank indicates the country's rank among all countries covered by the aggregate indicator, with 0 corresponding to lowest rank, and 100 to highest rank.  Percentile ranks have been adjusted to correct for changes over time in the composition of the countries covered by the WGI.  Percentile Rank Upper refers to upper bound of 90 percent confidence interval for governance, expressed in percentile rank terms.


name: Latin America & the Caribbean (IDA & IBRD countries)


IndicatorName: Government Effectiveness: Standard Error

Longdefinition: Government Effectiveness captures perceptions of the quality of public services, the quality of the civil service and the degree of its independence from political pressures, the quality of policy formulation and implementation, and the credibility of the government's commitment to such policies. Standard error indicates the precision of the estimate of governance.  Larger values of the standard error indicate less precise estimates.  A 90 percent confidence interval for the governance estimate is given by the estimate +/- 1.64 times the standard error.


name: Government Effectiveness: Standard Error

sourceNote: Government Effectiveness captures perceptions of the quality of public services, the quality of the civil service and the degree of its independence from political pressures, the quality of policy formulation and implementation, and the credibility of the government's commitment to such policies. Standard error indicates the precision of the estimate of governance.  Larger values of the standard error indicate less precise estimates.  A 90 percent confidence interval for the governance estimate is given by the estimate +/- 1.64 times the standard error.


name: Fragile and conflict affected situations


name: Middle East & North Africa (excluding high income)


Developmentrelevance: The indicator attempts to capture the reliability of government budgets: do governments spend what they intend to and do they collect what they set out to collect. The ability to implement the enacted budget is an important factor in government’s ability to deliver public services and achieve development objectives. The deviation between approved and actual spending is measured over a 12-month period (the budget year) and may have important implications for macroeconomic stability, public service delivery, and social welfare. A credibly implemented budget has only small deviations from the approved one.  If expenditure is under-executed, beneficiaries may not receive crucial services. Over-executed budgets may result in budget deficits and increased public debt levels and can influence the macroeconomic stability. In both cases, lack of budget credibility undermines the usefulness of the budget process for policy making and implementation and erodes public trust in government.

IndicatorName: Primary government expenditures as a proportion of original approved budget (%)

Longdefinition: Primary government expenditures as a proportion of original approved budget measures the extent to which aggregate budget expenditure outturn reflects the amount originally approved, as defined in government budget documentation and fiscal reports. The coverage is budgetary central government (BCG) and the time period covered is the last three completed fiscal years.

Source: Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA). Ministry of Finance (MoF).

Topic: Public Sector: Government finance


name: Primary government expenditures as a proportion of original approved budget (%)

sourceNote: Primary government expenditures as a proportion of original approved budget measures the extent to which aggregate budget expenditure outturn reflects the amount originally approved, as defined in government budget documentation and fiscal reports. The coverage is budgetary central government (BCG) and the time period covered is the last three completed fiscal years.

sourceOrganization: Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA). Ministry of Finance (MoF).


name: Latin America & Caribbean (excluding high income)


name: Least developed countries: UN classification


name: Middle East & North Africa (IDA & IBRD countries)


name: Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income)


name: East Asia & Pacific (IDA & IBRD countries)


name: Europe & Central Asia (excluding high income)


Human Capital Index (HCI) (scale 0-1)

IndicatorName: Human capital index (HCI) (scale 0-1)

Longdefinition: The HCI calculates the contributions of health and education to worker productivity. The final index score ranges from zero to one and measures the productivity as a future worker of child born today relative to the benchmark of full health and complete education.

Relatedindicators: Please visit the Human Capital Index (HCI) database (http://databank.worldbank.org/data/source/human-capital-index) for each of the components of the Human Capital Index as well as for the overall index, disaggregated by gender.

value: Human Capital Index

sourceOrganization: World Bank staff calculations based on the methodology described in World Bank (2018). https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/30498.


Source: World Bank staff calculations based on the methodology described in World Bank (2018). https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/30498

sourceNote: The HCI calculates the contributions of health and education to worker productivity. The final index score ranges from zero to one and measures the productivity as a future worker of child born today relative to the benchmark of full health and complete education.


IndicatorName: Human capital index (HCI), female (scale 0-1)

name: Human Capital Index (HCI), Female (scale 0-1)


IndicatorName: Human capital index (HCI), lower bound (scale 0-1)

Longdefinition: The HCI lower bound reflects uncertainty in the measurement of the components and the overall index. It is obtained by recalculating the HCI using estimates of the lower bounds of each of the components of the HCI. The range between the upper and lower bound is the uncertainty interval. While the uncertainty intervals constructed here do not have a rigorous statistical interpretation, a rule of thumb is that if for two countries they overlap substantially, the differences between their HCI values are not likely to be practically meaningful.

name: Human Capital Index (HCI), Lower Bound (scale 0-1)

sourceNote: The HCI lower bound reflects uncertainty in the measurement of  the components and the overall index. It is obtained by recalculating the HCI using estimates of the upper bounds of each of the components of the HCI.  The range between the upper and lower bound is the uncertainty interval.  While the uncertainty intervals constructed here do not have a rigorous statistical interpretation, a rule of thumb is that if for two countries they overlap substantially, the differences between their HCI values are not likely to be practically meaningful.

sourceOrganization: World Bank staff calculations based on the methodology described in Kraay (2018).  http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/300071537907028892/Methodology-for-a-World-Bank-Human-Capital-Index


IndicatorName: Human capital index (HCI), female, lower bound (scale 0-1)

name: Human Capital Index (HCI), Female, Lower Bound (scale 0-1)


IndicatorName: Human capital index (HCI), male, lower bound (scale 0-1)

name: Human Capital Index (HCI), Male, Lower Bound (scale 0-1)


IndicatorName: Human capital index (HCI), male (scale 0-1)

name: Human Capital Index (HCI), Male (scale 0-1)


IndicatorName: Human capital index (HCI), upper bound (scale 0-1)

Longdefinition: The HCI upper bound reflects uncertainty in the measurement of the components and the overall index. It is obtained by recalculating the HCI using estimates of the upper bounds of each of the components of the HCI. The range between the upper and lower bound is the uncertainty interval. While the uncertainty intervals constructed here do not have a rigorous statistical interpretation, a rule of thumb is that if for two countries they overlap substantially, the differences between their HCI values are not likely to be practically meaningful.

name: Human Capital Index (HCI), Upper Bound (scale 0-1)


sourceNote: The HCI upper bound reflects uncertainty in the measurement of  the components and the overall index. It is obtained by recalculating the HCI using estimates of the upper bounds of each of the components of the HCI.  The range between the upper and lower bound is the uncertainty interval.  While the uncertainty intervals constructed here do not have a rigorous statistical interpretation, a rule of thumb is that if for two countries they overlap substantially, the differences between their HCI values are not likely to be practically meaningful.


IndicatorName: Human capital index (HCI), female, upper bound (scale 0-1)

name: Human Capital Index (HCI), Female, Upper Bound (scale 0-1)


IndicatorName: Human capital index (HCI), male, upper bound (scale 0-1)

name: Human Capital Index (HCI), Male, Upper Bound (scale 0-1)


Developmentrelevance: When compared across years, the ease of doing business score shows how much the regulatory environment for local entrepreneurs in an economy has changed over time in absolute terms, whereas the ease of doing business ranking shows only how much the regulatory environment has changed relative to that in other economies.

IndicatorName: Ease of doing business score (0 = lowest performance to 100 = best performance)

Longdefinition: The ease of doing business scores benchmark economies with respect to regulatory best practice, showing the proximity to the best regulatory performance on each Doing Business indicator. An economy’s score is indicated on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the worst regulatory performance and 100 the best regulatory performance.

Source: World Bank, Doing Business project (http://www.doingbusiness.org/). NOTE: Doing Business has been discontinued as of 9/16/2021. For more information: https://bit.ly/3CLCbme

Statisticalconceptandmethodology: The aggregate ease of doing business score for each economy is the simple average of their scores on each of the 10 topics included in the ranking: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. All topics are weighted equally. Please refer to the Doing Business website for a detailed description of the methodology: https://www.doingbusiness.org/en/methodology

Topic: Private Sector & Trade: Business environment

Aggregationmethod: Unweighted average

Generalcomments: Data are presented for the survey year instead of publication year.

value: Private Sector


name: Ease of doing business score (0 = lowest performance to 100 = best performance)

sourceNote: The ease of doing business scores benchmark economies with respect to regulatory best practice, showing the proximity to the best regulatory performance on each Doing Business indicator. An economy’s score is indicated on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the worst regulatory performance and 100 the best regulatory performance.

sourceOrganization: World Bank, Doing Business project (http://www.doingbusiness.org/). NOTE: Doing Business has been discontinued as of 9/16/2021. For more information: https://bit.ly/3CLCbme


name: Europe & Central Asia (IDA & IBRD countries)


name: Latin America & the Caribbean (IDA & IBRD countries)


name: Fragile and conflict affected situations


name: Middle East & North Africa (excluding high income)


name: East Asia & Pacific (excluding high income)


name: Sub-Saharan Africa (IDA & IBRD countries)


name: East Asia & Pacific (IDA & IBRD countries)


Developmentrelevance:
The economic health of a country is measured not only in macroeconomic terms but also by other factors that shape daily economic activity such as laws, regulations, and institutional arrangements. The data measure business regulation, gauge regulatory outcomes, and measure the extent of legal protection of property, the flexibility of employment regulation, and the tax burden on businesses.

The fundamental premise of this data is that economic activity requires good rules and regulations that are efficient, accessible to all who need to use them, and simple to implement. Thus sometimes there is more emphasis on more regulation, such as stricter disclosure requirements in related-party transactions, and other times emphasis is on for simplified regulations, such as a one-stop shop for completing business startup formalities.

Entrepreneurs may not be aware of all required procedures or may avoid legally required procedures altogether. But where regulation is particularly onerous, levels of informality are higher, which comes at a cost: firms in the informal sector usually grow more slowly, have less access to credit, and employ fewer workers - and those workers remain outside the protections of labor law. The indicator can help policymakers understand the business environment in a country and - along with information from other sources such as the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys - provide insights into potential areas of reform.

IndicatorName: Business extent of disclosure index (0=less disclosure to 10=more disclosure)

Limitationsandexceptions: The Doing Business methodology has limitations that should be considered when interpreting the data. First, the data collected refer to businesses in the economy's largest city and may not represent regulations in other locations of the economy. To address this limitation, subnational indicators are being collected for selected economies. These subnational studies point to significant differences in the speed of reform and the ease of doing business across cities in the same economy. Second, the data often focus on a specific business form - generally a limited liability company of a specified size - and may not represent regulation for other types of businesses such as sole proprietorships. Third, transactions described in a standardized business case refer to a specific set of issues and may not represent the full set of issues a business encounters. Fourth, the time measures involve an element of judgment by the expert respondents. When sources indicate different estimates, the Doing Business time indicators represent the median values of several responses given under the assumptions of the standardized case. Fifth, the methodology assumes that a business has full information on what is required and does not waste time when completing procedures.

Longdefinition: Disclosure index measures the extent to which investors are protected through disclosure of ownership and financial information. The index ranges from 0 to 10, with higher values indicating more disclosure.

Statisticalconceptandmethodology:
Data are collected by the World Bank with a standardized survey that uses a simple business case to ensure comparability across economies and over time - with assumptions about the legal form of the business, its size, its location, and nature of its operation. Surveys are administered through more than 9,000 local experts, including lawyers, business consultants, accountants, freight forwarders, government officials, and other professionals who routinely administer or advise on legal and regulatory requirements.

Corporations are instruments of entrepreneurship and growth. They can also be abused for personal gain. The indicator measures the strength of minority shareholder protections against directors' misuse of corporate assets for personal gain.

The Doing Business project of the World Bank encompasses two types of data: data from readings of laws and regulations and data on time and motion indicators that measure efficiency in achieving a regulatory goal. Within the time and motion indicators cost estimates are recorded from official fee schedules where applicable. The data from surveys are subjected to numerous tests for robustness, which lead to revision or expansion of the information collected.

name: Europe & Central Asia (excluding high income)


name: Business extent of disclosure index (0=less disclosure to 10=more disclosure)

sourceNote: Disclosure index measures the extent to which investors are protected through disclosure of ownership and financial information. The index ranges from 0 to 10, with higher values indicating more disclosure.


name: Latin America & Caribbean (excluding high income)


name: Least developed countries: UN classification


name: Middle East & North Africa (IDA & IBRD countries)


name: Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income)


Developmentrelevance:
The economic health of a country is measured not only in macroeconomic terms but also by other factors that shape daily economic activity such as laws, regulations, and institutional arrangements. The fundamental premise of this data is that economic activity requires good rules and regulations that are efficient, accessible to all who need to use them, and simple to implement.
The Doing Business project provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 190 economies and selected cities at the subnational and regional level.
The Doing Business project, launched in 2002, looks at domestic small and medium-size companies and measures the regulations applying to them through their life cycle.
By gathering and analyzing comprehensive quantitative data to compare business regulation environments across economies and over time, Doing Business encourages economies to compete towards more efficient regulation; offers measurable benchmarks for reform; and serves as a resource for academics, journalists, private sector researchers and others interested in the business climate of each economy.

IndicatorName: Ease of doing business rank (1=most business-friendly regulations)

Limitationsandexceptions: The Doing Business methodology has limitations that should be considered when interpreting the data. First, the data collected refer to businesses in the economy's largest city and may not represent regulations in other locations of the economy. To address this limitation, subnational indicators are being collected for selected economies. These subnational studies point to significant differences in the speed of reform and the ease of doing business across cities in the same economy. Second, the data often focus on a specific business form - generally a limited liability company of a specified size - and may not represent regulation for other types of businesses such as sole proprietorships. Third, transactions described in a standardized business case refer to a specific set of issues and may not represent the full set of issues a business encounters. Fourth, the time measures involve an element of judgment by the expert respondents. When sources indicate different estimates, the Doing Business time indicators represent the median values of several responses given under the assumptions of the standardized case. Fifth, the methodology assumes that a business has full information on what is required and does not waste time when completing procedures. Please also see: https://www.doingbusiness.org/en/about-us/faq

Longdefinition: Ease of doing business ranks economies from 1 to 190, with first place being the best. The ranking of economies is determined by sorting the aggregate ease of doing business scores. A high ranking (a low numerical rank) means that the regulatory environment is conducive to business operation.

Statisticalconceptandmethodology:
The ranking of economies is determined by sorting the aggregate ease of doing business scores. The aggregate ease of doing business score for each economy is the simple average of their scores on each of the 10 topics included in the ranking: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. All topics are weighted equally.

Data are collected by the World Bank with a standardized survey that uses a simple business case to ensure comparability across economies and over time - with assumptions about the legal form of the business, its size, its location, and nature of its operation. Surveys are administered through more than 9,000 local experts, including lawyers, business consultants, accountants, freight forwarders, government officials, and other professionals who routinely administer or advise on legal and regulatory requirements.

The Doing Business project of the World Bank encompasses two types of data: data from readings of laws and regulations and data on time and motion indicators that measure efficiency in achieving a regulatory goal. Within the time and motion indicators cost estimates are recorded from official fee schedules where applicable. The data from surveys are subjected to numerous tests for robustness, which lead to revision or expansion of the information collected. Please also refer to the Doing Business website for additional information: https://www.doingbusiness.org/en/methodology

Generalcomments: Data are presented for the survey year instead of publication year. The country ranking is only available for the latest year.

value: Climate Change


name: Ease of doing business rank (1=most business-friendly regulations)

sourceNote: Ease of doing business ranks economies from 1 to 190, with first place being the best. The ranking of economies is determined by sorting the aggregate ease of doing business scores. A high ranking (a low numerical rank) means that the regulatory environment is conducive to business operation.


Developmentrelevance:
Private sector development is critical for poverty reduction and private markets are the engine of productivity growth, creating productive jobs and higher incomes. Thus, entrepreneurship is a critical part of economic development and growth and important for the continued dynamism of the modern economy. And with government playing a complementary role of regulation, funding, and service provision, private initiative and investment can help provide the basic services and conditions that empower poor people - by improving health, education, and infrastructure.

The Entrepreneurship Database is a critical source of data that facilitates the measurement of entrepreneurial activity across countries and over time. The data also allow for a deeper understanding of the relationship between new firm registration, the regulatory environment, and economic growth. Previous research using the Entrepreneurship Database has shown a significant relationship between the cost of compliance required to start a business and new firm registration.

IndicatorName: New business density (new registrations per 1,000 people ages 15-64)

Limitationsandexceptions:
Data collected from economies categorized as offshore financial centers by Eurostat are excluded from the analysis, because registered entities in these countries may not fit the objective of the Entrepreneurship Database aiming at measuring formally registered companies with actual economic activities. The information provided by these economies likely reflects a number of shell companies, defined as companies that are registered for tax purposes but are not economically active. The information on offshore centers is collected and published by the Entrepreneurship Database, but it is not used for trend analysis purposes. Information on whether a country is classified as an offshore center is available in the metadata (footnotes).

The Entrepreneurship Database looks the number of new companies with limited liability registered during each calendar year, the number of limited liability companies closed during each calendar year, and the total number of companies with limited liability at the end of each calendar year. It does not include all other cases such as the suspension of firms, restoration of firms, temporary measures, etc.

Longdefinition:
New business density is defined as the number of newly registered companies with limited liability
per 1,000 working-age adults (ages 15–64) per calendar year.

Source: World Bank's Entrepreneurship Database (https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/entrepreneurship).

Statisticalconceptandmethodology:
The Entrepreneurship Database is a unique source of comparable and cross-country data on the dynamics of formal private enterprises around the world based on administrative data collected from public agencies.

Entrepreneurship is defined as the activities of an individual or a group of individuals aimed at initiating economic enterprise in the formal sector under a legal form of business. The legal form of business refers to private companies with limited liability. The database assesses the flow and the stock of companies with limited liability.

The main sources of information are national business registries. In a limited number of cases where the business registry is unable to provide the data, the Entrepreneurship Database uses other alternatives sources, such as national statistics agencies, ministries of economy, chambers of commerce, private sector, or publicly available data.

Generalcomments: For cross-country comparability, only limited liability corporations that operate in the formal sector are included.


Shortdefinition:
New business density is defined as the number of newly registered companies with limited liability
per 1,000 working-age adults (ages 15–64) per calendar year.

name: New business density (new registrations per 1,000 people ages 15-64)

sourceOrganization: World Bank's Entrepreneurship Database (https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/entrepreneurship).


sourceNote:
New business density is defined as the number of newly registered companies with limited liability
per 1,000 working-age adults (ages 15–64) per calendar year.


New businesses registered (number)

IndicatorName: New businesses registered (number)

Longdefinition: New businesses registered are the number of new limited liability corporations (or its equivalent) registered in the calendar year.


sourceNote: New businesses registered are the number of new limited liability corporations (or its equivalent) registered in the calendar year.


Developmentrelevance:
Access to finance can expand opportunities for all with higher levels of access and use of banking services associated with lower financing obstacles for people and businesses. A stable financial system that promotes efficient savings and investment is also crucial for a thriving democracy and market economy.

There are several aspects of access to financial services: availability, cost, and quality of services. The development and growth of credit markets depend on access to timely, reliable, and accurate data on borrowers' credit experiences. Access to credit can be improved by making it easy to create and enforce collateral agreements and by increasing information about potential borrowers' creditworthiness. Lenders look at a borrower's credit history and collateral. Where credit registries and effective collateral laws are absent - as in many developing countries - banks make fewer loans. Indicators that cover getting credit include the strength of legal rights index and the depth of credit information index.

The economic health of a country is measured not only in macroeconomic terms but also by other factors that shape daily economic activity such as laws, regulations, and institutional arrangements. The data measure business regulation, gauge regulatory outcomes, and measure the extent of legal protection of property, the flexibility of employment regulation, and the tax burden on businesses.

The fundamental premise of this data is that economic activity requires good rules and regulations that are efficient, accessible to all who need to use them, and simple to implement. Thus sometimes there is more emphasis on more regulation, such as stricter disclosure requirements in related-party transactions, and other times emphasis is on for simplified regulations, such as a one-stop shop for completing business startup formalities.

Entrepreneurs may not be aware of all required procedures or may avoid legally required procedures altogether. But where regulation is particularly onerous, levels of informality are higher, which comes at a cost: firms in the informal sector usually grow more slowly, have less access to credit, and employ fewer workers - and those workers remain outside the protections of labor law. The indicator can help policymakers understand the business environment in a country and - along with information from other sources such as the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys - provide insights into potential areas of reform.

IndicatorName: Depth of credit information index (0=low to 8=high)

Longdefinition: Depth of credit information index measures rules affecting the scope, accessibility, and quality of credit information available through public or private credit registries. The index ranges from 0 to 8, with higher values indicating the availability of more credit information, from either a public registry or a private bureau, to facilitate lending decisions.

Statisticalconceptandmethodology:
For Doing Business 2015, the credit information index has expanded with two new measurements, namely whether (1) banks and financial institutions access credit bureaus and credit registries' databases through an online platform or system-to-system connection; and (2) bureau or registry credit scores are offered as a value added service to help banks and financial institutions to assess the creditworthiness of borrowers. Furthermore, if the credit bureau or registry is not operational or covers less than 5% of the adult population, the score on the depth of credit information index is 0. (Previously, the coverage threshold to score on the credit information index was 0.1%. In Doing Business 2015 this threshold has been increased to 5%.)

Data are collected by the World Bank with a standardized survey that uses a simple business case to ensure comparability across economies and over time - with assumptions about the legal form of the business, its size, its location, and nature of its operation. Surveys are administered through more than 9,000 local experts, including lawyers, business consultants, accountants, freight forwarders, government officials, and other professionals who routinely administer or advise on legal and regulatory requirements.

The Doing Business project of the World Bank encompasses two types of data: data from readings of laws and regulations and data on time and motion indicators that measure efficiency in achieving a regulatory goal. Within the time and motion indicators cost estimates are recorded from official fee schedules where applicable. The data from surveys are subjected to numerous tests for robustness, which lead to revision or expansion of the information collected. For more information on methodology, see http://www.doingbusiness.org/Methodology/getting-credit#legalRights.

value: Financial Sector


name: Depth of credit information index (0=low to 8=high)

sourceNote: Depth of credit information index measures rules affecting the scope, accessibility, and quality of credit information available through public or private credit registries. The index ranges from 0 to 8, with higher values indicating the availability of more credit information, from either a public registry or a private bureau, to facilitate lending decisions.


IndicatorName: Private credit bureau coverage (% of adults)

Longdefinition: Private credit bureau coverage reports the number of individuals or firms listed by a private credit bureau with current information on repayment history, unpaid debts, or credit outstanding. The number is expressed as a percentage of the adult population.


name: Private credit bureau coverage (% of adults)

sourceNote: Private credit bureau coverage reports the number of individuals or firms listed by a private credit bureau with current information on repayment history, unpaid debts, or credit outstanding. The number is expressed as a percentage of the adult population.


name: Europe & Central Asia (IDA & IBRD countries)


name: Latin America & the Caribbean (IDA & IBRD countries)


IndicatorName: Public credit registry coverage (% of adults)

Longdefinition: Public credit registry coverage reports the number of individuals and firms listed in a public credit registry with current information on repayment history, unpaid debts, or credit outstanding. The number is expressed as a percentage of the adult population.

Generalcomments: Data are presented for the survey year instead of publication year. Data starting in 2013 reflect the DB15-17 methodology change.


name: Public credit registry coverage (% of adults)

sourceNote: Public credit registry coverage reports the number of individuals and firms listed in a public credit registry with current information on repayment history, unpaid debts, or credit outstanding. The number is expressed as a percentage of the adult population.


name: Fragile and conflict affected situations


name: Middle East & North Africa (excluding high income)


name: East Asia & Pacific (excluding high income)


name: Sub-Saharan Africa (IDA & IBRD countries)


Developmentrelevance:
Firms evaluating investment options, governments interested in improving business conditions, and economists seeking to explain economic performance have all grappled with defining and measuring the business environment. The firm-level data from Enterprise Surveys provide a useful tool for benchmarking economies across a large number of indicators measured at the firm level.

International trade can be beneficial for firms in terms of less expensive inputs for manufacturing and new markets for exporting finished products and services. Time spent waiting for imports and exports to clear customs can be costly for firms and deter them from engaging in trade or making them uncompetitive globally.

IndicatorName: Average time to clear exports through customs (days)

Limitationsandexceptions:
The sampling methodology for Enterprise Surveys is stratified random sampling. In a simple random sample, all members of the population have the same probability of being selected and no weighting of the observations is necessary. In a stratified random sample, all population units are grouped within homogeneous groups and simple random samples are selected within each group. This method allows computing estimates for each of the strata with a specified level of precision while population estimates can also be estimated by properly weighting individual observations. The sampling weights take care of the varying probabilities of selection across different strata. Under certain conditions, estimates' precision under stratified random sampling will be higher than under simple random sampling (lower standard errors may result from the estimation procedure).

The strata for Enterprise Surveys are firm size, business sector, and geographic region within a country. Firm size levels are 5-19 (small), 20-99 (medium), and 100+ employees (large-sized firms). Since in most economies, the majority of firms are small and medium-sized, Enterprise Surveys oversample large firms since larger firms tend to be engines of job creation. Sector breakdown is usually manufacturing, retail, and other services. For larger economies, specific manufacturing sub-sectors are selected as additional strata on the basis of employment, value-added, and total number of establishments figures. Geographic regions within a country are selected based on which cities/regions collectively contain the majority of economic activity.

Ideally the survey sample frame is derived from the universe of eligible firms obtained from the country’s statistical office. Sometimes the master list of firms is obtained from other government agencies such as tax or business licensing authorities. In some cases, the list of firms is obtained from business associations or marketing databases. In a few cases, the sample frame is created via block enumeration, where the World Bank “manually” constructs a list of eligible firms after 1) partitioning a country’s cities of major economic activity into clusters and blocks, 2) randomly selecting a subset of blocks which will then be enumerated. In surveys conducted since 2005-06, survey documentation which explains the source of the sample frame and any special circumstances encountered during survey fieldwork are included with the collected datasets.

Obtaining panel data, i.e. interviews with the same firms across multiple years, is a priority in current Enterprise Surveys. When conducting a new Enterprise Survey in a country where data was previously collected, maximal effort is expended to re-interview as many firms (from the prior survey) as possible. For these panel firms, sampling weights can be adjusted to take into account the resulting altered probabilities of inclusion in the sample frame.

Longdefinition: Average time to clear exports through customs is the average number of days to clear direct exports through customs.

Source: World Bank, Enterprise Surveys (http://www.enterprisesurveys.org/).

Statisticalconceptandmethodology:
Firm-level surveys have been conducted since the 1990's by different units within the World Bank. Since 2005-06, most data collection efforts have been centralized within the Enterprise Analysis Unit. Surveys implemented by the Enterprise Analysis Unit follow the Global Methodology.

Private contractors conduct the Enterprise Surveys on behalf of the World Bank. Due to sensitive survey questions addressing business-government relations and bribery-related topics, private contractors, rather than any government agency or an organization/institution associated with government, are hired by the World Bank to collect the data.

Confidentiality of the survey respondents and the sensitive information they provide is necessary to ensure the greatest degree of survey participation, integrity and confidence in the quality of the data. Surveys are usually carried out in cooperation with business organizations and government agencies promoting job creation and economic growth, but confidentiality is never compromised.

The Enterprise Survey is answered by business owners and top managers. Sometimes the survey respondent calls company accountants and human resource managers into the interview to answer questions in the sales and labor sections of the survey. Typically 1200-1800 interviews are conducted in larger economies, 360 interviews are conducted in medium-sized economies, and for smaller economies, 150 interviews take place.

The manufacturing and services sectors are the primary business sectors of interest. This corresponds to firms classified with ISIC codes 15-37, 45, 50-52, 55, 60-64, and 72 (ISIC Rev.3.1). Formal (registered) companies with 5 or more employees are targeted for interview. Services firms include construction, retail, wholesale, hotels, restaurants, transport, storage, communications, and IT. Firms with 100% government/state ownership are not eligible to participate in an Enterprise Survey. Occasionally, for a few surveyed countries, other sectors are included in the companies surveyed such as education or health-related businesses. In each country, businesses in the cities/regions of major economic activity are interviewed.

In some countries, other surveys, which depart from the usual Enterprise Survey methodology, are conducted. Examples include 1) Informal Surveys- surveys of informal (unregistered) enterprises, 2) Micro Surveys- surveys fielded to registered firms with less than five employees, and 3) Financial Crisis Assessment Surveys- short surveys administered by telephone to assess the effects of the global financial crisis of 2008-09.

The Enterprise Surveys Unit uses two instruments: the Manufacturing Questionnaire and the Services Questionnaire. Although many questions overlap, some are only applicable to one type of business. For example, retail firms are not asked about production and nonproduction workers.

The standard Enterprise Survey topics include firm characteristics, gender participation, access to finance, annual sales, costs of inputs/labor, workforce composition, bribery, licensing, infrastructure, trade, crime, competition, capacity utilization, land and permits, taxation, informality, business-government relations, innovation and technology, and performance measures.

Over 90% of the questions objectively ascertain characteristics of a country’s business environment. The remaining questions assess the survey respondents’ opinions on what are the obstacles to firm growth and performance. The mode of data collection is face-to-face interviews.

Notesfromoriginalsource: All surveys were administered using the Enterprise Surveys methodology as outlined in the Methodology page which can be found from www.enterprisesurveys.org.

value: Trade


name: Average time to clear exports through customs (days)

sourceNote: Average time to clear exports through customs is the average number of days to clear direct exports through customs.

sourceOrganization: World Bank, Enterprise Surveys (http://www.enterprisesurveys.org/).

name: East Asia & Pacific (IDA & IBRD countries)


name: Europe & Central Asia (excluding high income)


name: Latin America & Caribbean (excluding high income)


name: Least developed countries: UN classification


name: Middle East & North Africa (IDA & IBRD countries)


name: Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income)


IndicatorName: Time to obtain an electrical connection (days)

Longdefinition: The average wait, in days, experienced to obtain an electrical connection from the day an establishment applies for it to the day it receives the service.

value: Energy & Mining


name: Time to obtain an electrical connection (days)

sourceNote: The average wait, in days, experienced to obtain an electrical connection from the day an establishment applies for it to the day it receives the service.


IndicatorName: Power outages in firms in a typical month (number)

Longdefinition: Power outages are the average number of power outages that establishments experience in a typical month.


name: Power outages in firms in a typical month (number)

sourceNote: Power outages are the average number of power outages that establishments experience in a typical month.


Developmentrelevance:
Firms evaluating investment options, governments interested in improving business conditions, and economists seeking to explain economic performance have all grappled with defining and measuring the business environment. The firm-level data from Enterprise Surveys provide a useful tool for benchmarking economies across a large number of indicators measured at the firm level.

Informality is associated with business operations without registration. The informal sector in an economy may be a source of unfair competition to formal firms and also deprive governments of potential tax revenue and diminish a government's capacity for regulatory oversight.

Informality can be defined along different dimensions such as operating without registration, income tax evasion, labor tax evasion, or operating outside the legal framework of an economy. Firms may show different degrees of informality along these dimensions which may also overlap.

A large informal sector has serious consequences for the formal private sector, and may pose unfair competition for formal firms. It is an approximation to the prevalence of informality in the private economy.

IndicatorName: Firms experiencing electrical outages (% of firms)

Longdefinition: Percent of firms experiencing electrical outages during the previous fiscal year.


name: Firms experiencing electrical outages (% of firms)

sourceNote: Percent of firms experiencing electrical outages during the previous fiscal year.


name: Europe & Central Asia (IDA & IBRD countries)


name: Latin America & the Caribbean (IDA & IBRD countries)


Time required to get electricity (days)

IndicatorName: Time required to get electricity (days)

Longdefinition: Time required to get electricity is the number of days to obtain a permanent electricity connection. The measure captures the median duration that the electricity utility and experts indicate is necessary in practice, rather than required by law, to complete a procedure.

Statisticalconceptandmethodology:
Data are collected by the World Bank with a standardized survey that uses a simple business case to ensure comparability across economies and over time - with assumptions about the legal form of the business, its size, its location, and nature of its operation. Surveys are administered through more than 9,000 local experts, including lawyers, business consultants, accountants, freight forwarders, government officials, and other professionals who routinely administer or advise on legal and regulatory requirements.

Data records all procedures required for a business to obtain a permanent electricity connection. These procedures include applications and contracts with electricity utilities, all necessary inspections and clearances from the utility and other agencies and the external and final connection works.

The Doing Business project of the World Bank encompasses two types of data: data from readings of laws and regulations and data on time and motion indicators that measure efficiency in achieving a regulatory goal. Within the time and motion indicators cost estimates are recorded from official fee schedules where applicable. The data from surveys are subjected to numerous tests for robustness, which lead to revision or expansion of the information collected. Data starting in 2014 reflect the DB15-17 methodology change. Please also see: https://www.doingbusiness.org/en/methodology/getting-electricity


sourceNote: Time required to get electricity is the number of days to obtain a permanent electricity connection. The measure captures the median duration that the electricity utility and experts indicate is necessary in practice, rather than required by law, to complete a procedure.


Cost to export, border compliance (US$)

IndicatorName: Cost to export, border compliance (US$)

Limitationsandexceptions: If inspections by agencies other than customs are conducted in 20% or fewer cases, the border compliance time and cost measures take into account only clearance and inspections by customs (the standard case). If inspections by other agencies take place in more than 20% of cases, the time and cost measures account for clearance and inspections by all agencies. Different types of inspections may take place with different probabilities—for example, scanning may take place in 100% of cases while physical inspection occurs in 5% of cases. In situations like this, Doing Business would count the time only for scanning because it happens in more than 20% of cases while physical inspection does not. The border compliance time and cost for an economy do not include the time and cost for compliance with the regulations of any other economy.

Longdefinition: Border compliance captures the time and cost associated with compliance with the economy’s customs regulations and with regulations relating to other inspections that are mandatory in order for the shipment to cross the economy’s border, as well as the time and cost for handling that takes place at its port or border. The time and cost for this segment include time and cost for customs clearance and inspection procedures conducted by other government agencies.

Statisticalconceptandmethodology:
The computation of border compliance time and cost depends on where the border compliance procedures take place, who requires and conducts the procedures and what is the probability that inspections will be conducted. If all customs clearance and other inspections take place at the port or border, the time estimate for border compliance takes this simultaneity into account. It is entirely possible that the border compliance time and cost could be negligible or zero, as in the case of trade between members of the European Union or other customs unions.

If some or all customs or other inspections take place at other locations, the time and cost for these procedures are added to the time and cost for those that take place at the port or border. In Kazakhstan, for example, all customs clearance and inspections take place at a customs post in Almaty that is not at the land border between Kazakhstan and China. In this case border compliance time is the sum of the time spent at the terminal in Almaty and the handling time at the border.

Doing Business asks contributors to estimate the time and cost for clearance and inspections by customs agencies— defined as documentary and physical inspections for the purpose of calculating duties by verifying product classification, confirming quantity, determining origin and checking the veracity of other information on the customs declaration. (This category includes all inspections aimed at preventing smuggling.) These are clearance and inspection procedures that take place in the majority of cases and thus are considered the "standard" case. The time and cost estimates capture the efficiency of the customs agency of the economy.

Doing Business also asks contributors to estimate the total time and cost for clearance and inspections by customs and all other government agencies for the specified product. These estimates account for inspections related to health, safety, phytosanitary standards, conformity and the like, and thus capture the efficiency of agencies that require and conduct these additional inspections.

Topic: Private Sector & Trade: Trade facilitation

Generalcomments:
Insurance cost and informal payments for which no receipt is issued are excluded from the costs recorded. Costs are reported in U.S. dollars. Contributors are asked to convert local currency into U.S. dollars based on the exchange rate prevailing on the day they answer the questionnaire. Contributors are private sector experts in international trade logistics and are informed about exchange rates and their movements.

Data are presented for the survey year instead of publication year.


sourceNote: Border compliance captures the time and cost associated with compliance with the economy’s customs regulations and with regulations relating to other inspections that are mandatory in order for the shipment to cross the economy’s border, as well as the time and cost for handling that takes place at its port or border. The time and cost for this segment include time and cost for customs clearance and inspection procedures conducted by other government agencies.


IndicatorName: Cost to export, documentary compliance (US$)

Longdefinition: Documentary compliance captures the time and cost associated with compliance with the documentary requirements of all government agencies of the origin economy, the destination economy and any transit economies. The aim is to measure the total burden of preparing the bundle of documents that will enable completion of the international trade for the product and partner pair assumed in the case study.

Statisticalconceptandmethodology:
The time and cost for documentary compliance include the time and cost for obtaining documents (such as time spent to get the document issued and stamped); preparing documents (such as time spent gathering information to complete the customs declaration or certificate of origin); processing documents (such as time spent waiting for the relevant authority to issue a phytosanitary certificate); presenting documents (such as time spent showing a port terminal receipt to port authorities); and submitting documents (such as time spent submitting a customs declaration to the customs agency in person or electronically).

All electronic or paper submissions of information requested by any government agency in connection with the shipment are considered to be documents obtained, prepared and submitted during the export or import process. All documents prepared by the freight forwarder or customs broker for the product and partner pair assumed in the case study are included regardless of whether they are required by law or in practice. Any documents prepared and submitted so as to get access to preferential treatment— for example, a certificate of origin—are included in the calculation of the time and cost for documentary compliance. Any documents prepared and submitted because of a perception that they ease the passage of the shipment are also included (for example, freight forwarders may prepare a packing list because in their experience this reduces the probability of physical or other intrusive inspections).

In addition, any documents that are mandatory for exporting or importing are included in the calculation of time and cost. Documents that need to be obtained only once are not counted, however. And Doing Business does not include documents needed to produce and sell in the domestic market—such as certificates of third-party safety standards testing that may be required to sell toys domestically—unless a government agency needs to see these documents during the export process.


name: Cost to export, documentary compliance (US$)

sourceNote: Documentary compliance captures the time and cost associated with compliance with the documentary requirements of all government agencies of the origin economy, the destination economy and any transit economies. The aim is to measure the total burden of preparing the bundle of documents that will enable completion of the international trade for the product and partner pair assumed in the case study.


name: Fragile and conflict affected situations


name: Middle East & North Africa (excluding high income)


name: East Asia & Pacific (excluding high income)


name: Sub-Saharan Africa (IDA & IBRD countries)


IndicatorName: Time to export, border compliance (hours)

Generalcomments:
Time is measured in hours, and 1 day is 24 hours (for example, 22 days are recorded as 22 × 24 = 528 hours). If customs clearance takes 7.5 hours, the data are recorded as is. Alternatively, suppose that documents are submitted to a customs agency at 8:00 a.m., are processed overnight and can be picked up at 8:00 a.m. the next day. In this case the time for customs clearance would be recorded as 24 hours because the actual procedure took 24 hours.

Data are presented for the survey year instead of publication year.


name: Time to export, border compliance (hours)


name: East Asia & Pacific (IDA & IBRD countries)


IndicatorName: Time to export, documentary compliance (hours)


name: Time to export, documentary compliance (hours)


name: Latin America & Caribbean (excluding high income)


name: Least developed countries: UN classification


name: Middle East & North Africa (IDA & IBRD countries)


name: Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income)


name: Europe & Central Asia (excluding high income)


Developmentrelevance:
Firms evaluating investment options, governments interested in improving business conditions, and economists seeking to explain economic performance have all grappled with defining and measuring the business environment. The firm-level data from Enterprise Surveys provide a useful tool for benchmarking economies across a large number of indicators measured at the firm level.

Corruption by public officials may present a major administrative and financial burden on firms. Corruption creates an unfavorable business environment by undermining the operational efficiency of firms and raising the costs and risks associated with doing business.

In some countries doing business requires informal payments to "get things done" in customs, taxes, licenses, regulations, services, and the like. Such corruption can harm the business environment by distorting policymaking, undermining government credibility, and diverting public resources.

IndicatorName: Firms using banks to finance working capital (% of firms)

Longdefinition: Firms using banks to finance working capital are the percentage of firms using bank loans to finance working capital.


name: Firms using banks to finance working capital (% of firms)

sourceNote: Firms using banks to finance working capital are the percentage of firms using bank loans to finance working capital.


Developmentrelevance:
Firms evaluating investment options, governments interested in improving business conditions, and economists seeking to explain economic performance have all grappled with defining and measuring the business environment. The firm-level data from Enterprise Surveys provide a useful tool for benchmarking economies across a large number of indicators measured at the firm level.

Financial markets connect firms to lenders and investors, allowing firms to grow their businesses: creditworthy firms can obtain credit from financial intermediaries at competitive prices. But too often market imperfections and government-induced distortions limit access to credit and thus restrain growth.

Excessive reliance on internal funds is a sign of potentially inefficient financial intermediation.

IndicatorName: Firms using banks to finance investment (% of firms)

Longdefinition: Firms using banks to finance investment are the percentage of firms using banks to finance investments.


name: Firms using banks to finance investment (% of firms)

sourceNote: Firms using banks to finance investment are the percentage of firms using banks to finance investments.


name: Europe & Central Asia (IDA & IBRD countries)


name: Latin America & the Caribbean (IDA & IBRD countries)


IndicatorName: Bribery incidence (% of firms experiencing at least one bribe payment request)

Longdefinition: Bribery incidence is the percentage of firms experiencing at least one bribe payment request across 6 public transactions dealing with utilities access, permits, licenses, and taxes.


name: Bribery incidence (% of firms experiencing at least one bribe payment request)

sourceNote: Bribery incidence is the percentage of firms experiencing at least one bribe payment request across 6 public transactions dealing with utilities access, permits, licenses, and taxes.


name: Fragile and conflict affected situations


name: Middle East & North Africa (excluding high income)


name: East Asia & Pacific (excluding high income)


name: Sub-Saharan Africa (IDA & IBRD countries)


IndicatorName: Firms competing against unregistered firms (% of firms)

Longdefinition: Firms competing against unregistered firms are the percentage of firms competing against unregistered or informal firms.


name: Firms competing against unregistered firms (% of firms)

sourceNote: Firms competing against unregistered firms are the percentage of firms competing against unregistered or informal firms.


name: East Asia & Pacific (IDA & IBRD countries)


IndicatorName: Informal payments to public officials (% of firms)

Longdefinition: Informal payments to public officials are the percentage of firms expected to make informal payments to public officials to "get things done" with regard to customs, taxes, licenses, regulations, services, and the like.


name: Informal payments to public officials (% of firms)

sourceNote: Informal payments to public officials are the percentage of firms expected to make informal payments to public officials to "get things done" with regard to customs, taxes, licenses, regulations, services, and the like.


name: Latin America & Caribbean (excluding high income)


name: Least developed countries: UN classification


name: Middle East & North Africa (IDA & IBRD countries)


name: Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income)


Developmentrelevance:
Firms evaluating investment options, governments interested in improving business conditions, and economists seeking to explain economic performance have all grappled with defining and measuring the business environment. The firm-level data from Enterprise Surveys provide a useful tool for benchmarking economies across a large number of indicators measured at the firm level.

Crime imposes costs on firms when they are forced to divert resources from productive uses to cover security costs. Both foreign and domestic investors perceive crime as an indication of social instability, and crime drives up the cost of doing business. Also, commercial disputes between firms and their clients occur regularly in the course of doing business. Resolving these disputes can be challenging when legal institutions are weak or nonexistent.

Crime, theft, and disorder may impose additional costs to businesses and society, and consume considerable resources.

IndicatorName: Losses due to theft and vandalism (% of annual sales of affected firms)

Longdefinition: Average losses as a result of theft, robbery, vandalism or arson that occurred on the establishment’s premises calculated as a percentage of annual sales. The value represents the average losses for all firms which reported losses (please see indicator IC.FRM.THEV.ZS).

Source: World Bank, Enterprise Surveys (http://www.enterprisesurveys.org/)

Statisticalconceptandmethodology:
Firm-level surveys have been conducted since the 1990's by different units within the World Bank. Since 2005-06, most data collection efforts have been centralized within the Enterprise Analysis Unit. Surveys implemented by the Enterprise Analysis Unit follow the Global Methodology.

Private contractors conduct the Enterprise Surveys on behalf of the World Bank. Due to sensitive survey questions addressing business-government relations and bribery-related topics, private contractors, rather than any government agency or an organization/institution associated with government, are hired by the World Bank to collect the data.

Confidentiality of the survey respondents and the sensitive information they provide is necessary to ensure the greatest degree of survey participation, integrity and confidence in the quality of the data. Surveys are usually carried out in cooperation with business organizations and government agencies promoting job creation and economic growth, but confidentiality is never compromised.

The Enterprise Survey is answered by business owners and top managers. Sometimes the survey respondent calls company accountants and human resource managers into the interview to answer questions in the sales and labor sections of the survey. Typically 1200-1800 interviews are conducted in larger economies, 360 interviews are conducted in medium-sized economies, and for smaller economies, 150 interviews take place.

The manufacturing and services sectors are the primary business sectors of interest. This corresponds to firms classified with ISIC codes 15-37, 45, 50-52, 55, 60-64, and 72 (ISIC Rev.3.1). Formal (registered) companies with 5 or more employees are targeted for interview. Services firms include construction, retail, wholesale, hotels, restaurants, transport, storage, communications, and IT. Firms with 100% government/state ownership are not eligible to participate in an Enterprise Survey. Occasionally, for a few surveyed countries, other sectors are included in the companies surveyed such as education or health-related businesses. In each country, businesses in the cities/regions of major economic activity are interviewed.

In some countries, other surveys, which depart from the usual Enterprise Survey methodology, are conducted. Examples include 1) Informal Surveys- surveys of informal (unregistered) enterprises, 2) Micro Surveys- surveys fielded to registered firms with less than five employees, and 3) Financial Crisis Assessment Surveys- short surveys administered by telephone to assess the effects of the global financial crisis of 2008-09.

The Enterprise Surveys Unit uses two instruments: the Manufacturing Questionnaire and the Services Questionnaire. Although many questions overlap, some are only applicable to one type of business. For example, retail firms are not asked about production and nonproduction workers.

The standard Enterprise Survey topics include firm characteristics, gender participation, access to finance, annual sales, costs of inputs/labor, workforce composition, bribery, licensing, infrastructure, trade, crime, competition, capacity utilization, land and permits, taxation, informality, business-government relations, innovation and technology, and performance measures.

Over 90% of the questions objectively ascertain characteristics of a country’s business environment. The remaining questions assess the survey respondents’ opinions on what are the obstacles to firm growth and performance. The mode of data collection is face-to-face interviews.

Please also refer to the methodology information on the Enterprise Surveys site: https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/en/methodology

name: Losses due to theft and vandalism (% of annual sales for affected firms)


sourceNote: Average losses as a result of theft, robbery, vandalism or arson that occurred on the establishment’s premises calculated as a percentage of annual sales. The value represents the average losses for all firms which reported losses (please see indicator IC.FRM.THEV.ZS).

sourceOrganization: World Bank, Enterprise Surveys (http://www.enterprisesurveys.org/)


name: Europe & Central Asia (excluding high income)


Developmentrelevance:
Firms evaluating investment options, governments interested in improving business conditions, and economists seeking to explain economic performance have all grappled with defining and measuring the business environment. The firm-level data from Enterprise Surveys provide a useful tool for benchmarking economies across a large number of indicators measured at the firm level.

Most countries can improve regulation and taxation without compromising broader social interests. Excessive regulation may harm business performance and growth. For example, time spent with tax officials is a burden firms may face in paying taxes. The business environment suffers when governments increase uncertainty and risks or impose unnecessary costs and unsound regulation and taxation. Time to obtain licenses and permits and the associated red tape constrain firm operations.

Open markets allow firms to expand, raise standards for efficiency on exporters, and enable firms to import low cost supplies. However, trading also forces firms to deal with customs services and trade regulations, obtain export and import licenses, and in some cases, firms also face additional costs due to losses during transport.

IndicatorName: Time required to obtain an operating license (days)

Longdefinition: Time required to obtain operating license is the average wait to obtain an operating license from the day the establishment applied for it to the day it was granted.


name: Time required to obtain an operating license (days)

sourceNote: Time required to obtain operating license is the average wait to obtain an operating license from the day the establishment applied for it to the day it was granted.


name: Europe & Central Asia (IDA & IBRD countries)


name: Latin America & the Caribbean (IDA & IBRD countries)


Developmentrelevance:
Firms evaluating investment options, governments interested in improving business conditions, and economists seeking to explain economic performance have all grappled with defining and measuring the business environment. The firm-level data from Enterprise Surveys provide a useful tool for benchmarking economies across a large number of indicators measured at the firm level.

Firms with female top manager measures women's integration as decision makers. Benchmarking firms with female top manager is important to achieving gender equality promotion and empowerment of women. The gender topic provides information about women's entrepreneurship and economic participation in the labor force.

IndicatorName: Firms with female top manager (% of firms)

Longdefinition: Firms with female top manager refers to the percentage of firms in the private sector who have females as top managers. Top manager refers to the highest ranking manager or CEO of the establishment. This person may be the owner if he/she works as the manager of the firm. The results are based on surveys of more than 100,000 private firms.

Generalcomments: Relevance to gender indicator: Women are vastly underrepresented in decision making positions at the top level in the private sector and this indicator monitors progress that has been made.

value: Gender


name: Firms with female top manager (% of firms)

sourceNote: Firms with female top manager refers to the percentage of firms in the private sector who have females as top managers. Top manager refers to the highest ranking manager or CEO of the establishment. This person may be the owner if he/she works as the manager of the firm. The results are based on surveys of more than 100,000 private firms.


name: Fragile and conflict affected situations


name: Middle East & North Africa (excluding high income)


name: East Asia & Pacific (excluding high income)


name: Sub-Saharan Africa (IDA & IBRD countries)


Developmentrelevance:
Firms evaluating investment options, governments interested in improving business conditions, and economists seeking to explain economic performance have all grappled with defining and measuring the business environment. The firm-level data from Enterprise Surveys provide a useful tool for benchmarking economies across a large number of indicators measured at the firm level.

Female participation in firm ownership and in management measures women's integration as decision makers. Benchmarking female participation in firm ownership, management, and the workforce is important to achieving gender equality promotion and empowerment of women. The gender topic provides information about women's entrepreneurship and economic participation in the labor force.

IndicatorName: Firms with female participation in ownership (% of firms)

Longdefinition: Firms with female participation in ownership are the percentage of firms with a woman among the principal owners.


name: Firms with female participation in ownership (% of firms)

sourceNote: Firms with female participation in ownership are the percentage of firms with a woman among the principal owners.


name: East Asia & Pacific (IDA & IBRD countries)


Developmentrelevance:
Firms evaluating investment options, governments interested in improving business conditions, and economists seeking to explain economic performance have all grappled with defining and measuring the business environment. The firm-level data from Enterprise Surveys provide a useful tool for benchmarking economies across a large number of indicators measured at the firm level.

In this indicator informality is associated with business operations without registration. The informal sector in an economy may be a source of unfair competition to formal firms and also deprive governments of potential tax revenue and diminish a government's capacity for regulatory oversight.

Informality can be defined along different dimensions such as operating without registration, income tax evasion, labor tax evasion, or operating outside the legal framework of an economy. Firms may show different degrees of informality along these dimensions which may also overlap.

A large informal sector has serious consequences for the formal private sector, and may pose unfair competition for formal firms. It is an approximation to the prevalence of informality in the private economy.

IndicatorName: Firms formally registered when operations started (% of firms)

Longdefinition: Firms formally registered when operations started are the percentage of firms formally registered when they started operations in the country.


name: Firms formally registered when operations started (% of firms)

sourceNote: Firms formally registered when operations started are the percentage of firms formally registered when they started operations in the country.


name: Latin America & Caribbean (excluding high income)


name: Least developed countries: UN classification


name: Middle East & North Africa (IDA & IBRD countries)


name: Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income)


IndicatorName: Firms that do not report all sales for tax purposes (% of firms)

Longdefinition: Firms that do not report all sales for tax purposes are the percentage of firms that expressed that a typical firm reports less than 100 percent of sales for tax purposes; such firms are termed "informal firms."

Notesfromoriginalsource: Most surveys were administered using the Enterprise Surveys methodology as outlined in the Methodology page which can be found from www.enterprisesurveys.org. For surveys which did not strictly adhere to the global Enterprise Surveys methodology, plus Afghanistan, any inference from one of these surveys is representative only for the data sample itself, not the country level.


name: Firms that do not report all sales for tax purposes (% of firms)

sourceNote: Firms that do not report all sales for tax purposes are the percentage of firms that expressed that a typical firm reports less than 100 percent of sales for tax purposes; such firms are termed "informal firms."


name: Europe & Central Asia (excluding high income)


IndicatorName: Firms visited or required meetings with tax officials (% of firms)

Longdefinition: Percent of firms that were visited or required to meet with tax officials.


name: Firms visited or required meetings with tax officials (% of firms)

sourceNote: Percent of firms that were visited or required to meet with tax officials.


name: Europe & Central Asia (IDA & IBRD countries)


name: Latin America & the Caribbean (IDA & IBRD countries)


Developmentrelevance:
Firms evaluating investment options, governments interested in improving business conditions, and economists seeking to explain economic performance have all grappled with defining and measuring the business environment. The firm-level data from Enterprise Surveys provide a useful tool for benchmarking economies across a large number of indicators measured at the firm level.

The reliability and availability of infrastructure benefit households and support development. Firms with access to modern and efficient infrastructure - telecommunications, electricity, and transport - can be more productive.

A strong infrastructure enhances the competitiveness of an economy and generates a business environment conducive to firm growth and development. Good infrastructure efficiently connects firms to their customers and suppliers, and enables the use of modern production technologies. Conversely, deficiencies in infrastructure, such as loss of electricity on regular basis, create barriers to productive opportunities and increase costs for all firms, from micro enterprises to large multinational corporations.

IndicatorName: Value lost due to electrical outages (% of sales for affected firms)

Longdefinition: Average losses due to electrical outages, as percentage of total annual sales. The value represents average losses for all firms which reported outages (please see indicator IC.ELC.OUTG.ZS).


name: Value lost due to electrical outages (% of sales for affected firms)

sourceNote: Average losses due to electrical outages, as percentage of total annual sales. The value represents average losses for all firms which reported outages (please see indicator IC.ELC.OUTG.ZS).


name: Fragile and conflict affected situations


name: Middle East & North Africa (excluding high income)


name: East Asia & Pacific (excluding high income)


name: Sub-Saharan Africa (IDA & IBRD countries)


Firms that spend on R&D (% of firms)

IndicatorName: Firms that spend on R&D (% of firms)

Longdefinition: Percent of firms that spend on research and development.


sourceNote: Percent of firms that spend on research and development.


IndicatorName: Firms experiencing losses due to theft and vandalism (% of firms)

Longdefinition: Percent of firms experiencing losses due to theft, robbery, vandalism or arson that occurred on the establishment's premises.


name: Firms experiencing losses due to theft and vandalism (% of firms)

sourceNote: Percent of firms experiencing losses due to theft, robbery, vandalism or arson that occurred on the establishment's premises.


name: East Asia & Pacific (IDA & IBRD countries)


IndicatorName: Firms offering formal training (% of firms)

Longdefinition: Firms offering formal training are the percentage of firms offering formal training programs for their permanent, full-time employees.


name: Firms offering formal training (% of firms)

sourceNote: Firms offering formal training are the percentage of firms offering formal training programs for their permanent, full-time employees.


name: Latin America & Caribbean (excluding high income)


name: Least developed countries: UN classification


name: Middle East & North Africa (IDA & IBRD countries)


name: Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income)


IndicatorName: Time spent dealing with the requirements of government regulations (% of senior management time)

Longdefinition: Time spent dealing with the requirements of government regulations is the proportion of senior management's time, in a typical week, that is spent dealing with the requirements imposed by government regulations (e.g., taxes, customs, labor regulations, licensing and registration, including dealings with officials, and completing forms).


name: Time spent dealing with the requirements of government regulations (% of senior management time)

sourceNote: Time spent dealing with the requirements of government regulations is the proportion of senior management's time, in a typical week, that is spent dealing with the requirements imposed by government regulations (e.g., taxes, customs, labor regulations, licensing and registration, including dealings with officials, and completing forms).


Cost to import, border compliance (US$)

IndicatorName: Cost to import, border compliance (US$)

Longdefinition: Border compliance captures the time and cost associated with compliance with the economy’s customs regulations and with regulations relating to other inspections that are mandatory in order for the shipment to cross the economy’s border, as well as the time and cost for handling that takes place at its port or border. The time and cost for this segment include time and cost for customs clearance and inspection procedures conducted by other government agencies.


sourceNote: Border compliance captures the time and cost associated with compliance with the economy’s customs regulations and with regulations relating to other inspections that are mandatory in order for the shipment to cross the economy’s border, as well as the time and cost for handling that takes place at its port or border. The time and cost for this segment include time and cost for customs clearance and inspection procedures conducted by other government agencies.


name: Europe & Central Asia (excluding high income)


IndicatorName: Cost to import, documentary compliance (US$)

Longdefinition: Documentary compliance captures the time and cost associated with compliance with the documentary requirements of all government agencies of the origin economy, the destination economy and any transit economies. The aim is to measure the total burden of preparing the bundle of documents that will enable completion of the international trade for the product and partner pair assumed in the case study.


name: Cost to import, documentary compliance (US$)

sourceNote: Documentary compliance captures the time and cost associated with compliance with the documentary requirements of all government agencies of the origin economy, the destination economy and any transit economies. The aim is to measure the total burden of preparing the bundle of documents that will enable completion of the international trade for the product and partner pair assumed in the case study.


name: Europe & Central Asia (IDA & IBRD countries)


name: Latin America & the Caribbean (IDA & IBRD countries)


IndicatorName: Time to import, border compliance (hours)


name: Time to import, border compliance (hours)


name: Fragile and conflict affected situations


name: Middle East & North Africa (excluding high income)


name: East Asia & Pacific (excluding high income)


name: Sub-Saharan Africa (IDA & IBRD countries)


IndicatorName: Time to import, documentary compliance (hours)


name: Time to import, documentary compliance (hours)


name: East Asia & Pacific (IDA & IBRD countries)


Time to resolve insolvency (years)

IndicatorName: Time to resolve insolvency (years)

Longdefinition: Time to resolve insolvency is the number of years from the filing for insolvency in court until the resolution of distressed assets.

Statisticalconceptandmethodology:
Data are collected by the World Bank with a standardized survey that uses a simple business case to ensure comparability across economies and over time - with assumptions about the legal form of the business, its size, its location, and nature of its operation. Surveys are administered through more than 9,000 local experts, including lawyers, business consultants, accountants, freight forwarders, government officials, and other professionals who routinely administer or advise on legal and regulatory requirements.

The indicator measures the time, cost, and outcome of insolvency proceedings involving domestic entities. The time required for creditors to recover their credit is recorded in calendar years. The cost of the proceedings is recorded as a percentage of the value of the debtor's estate.

The Doing Business project of the World Bank encompasses two types of data: data from readings of laws and regulations and data on time and motion indicators that measure efficiency in achieving a regulatory goal. Within the time and motion indicators cost estimates are recorded from official fee schedules where applicable. The data from surveys are subjected to numerous tests for robustness, which lead to revision or expansion of the information collected.


sourceNote: Time to resolve insolvency is the number of years from the filing for insolvency in court until the resolution of distressed assets.


IndicatorName: Strength of legal rights index (0=weak to 12=strong)

Longdefinition: Strength of legal rights index measures the degree to which collateral and bankruptcy laws protect the rights of borrowers and lenders and thus facilitate lending. The index ranges from 0 to 12, with higher scores indicating that these laws are better designed to expand access to credit.

Statisticalconceptandmethodology:
Data are collected by the World Bank with a standardized survey that uses a simple business case to ensure comparability across economies and over time - with assumptions about the legal form of the business, its size, its location, and nature of its operation. Surveys are administered through more than 9,000 local experts, including lawyers, business consultants, accountants, freight forwarders, government officials, and other professionals who routinely administer or advise on legal and regulatory requirements.

The Doing Business project of the World Bank encompasses two types of data: data from readings of laws and regulations and data on time and motion indicators that measure efficiency in achieving a regulatory goal. Within the time and motion indicators cost estimates are recorded from official fee schedules where applicable. The data from surveys are subjected to numerous tests for robustness, which lead to revision or expansion of the information collected. Data starting in 2013 reflect the DB15-17 methodology change. For more information on methodology, see http://www.doingbusiness.org/Methodology/getting-credit#legalRights.


name: Strength of legal rights index (0=weak to 12=strong)

sourceNote: Strength of legal rights index measures the degree to which collateral and bankruptcy laws protect the rights of borrowers and lenders and thus facilitate lending. The index ranges from 0 to 12, with higher scores indicating that these laws are better designed to expand access to credit.


name: Latin America & Caribbean (excluding high income)


name: Least developed countries: UN classification


name: Middle East & North Africa (IDA & IBRD countries)


name: Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income)


IndicatorName: Time required to enforce a contract (days)

Longdefinition: Time required to enforce a contract is the number of calendar days from the filing of the lawsuit in court until the final determination and, in appropriate cases, payment.

Statisticalconceptandmethodology:
Data are collected by the World Bank with a standardized survey that uses a simple business case to ensure comparability across economies and over time - with assumptions about the legal form of the business, its size, its location, and nature of its operation. Surveys are administered through more than 9,000 local experts, including lawyers, business consultants, accountants, freight forwarders, government officials, and other professionals who routinely administer or advise on legal and regulatory requirements.

A judicial system that provides effective commercial dispute resolution is crucial to a healthy economy. Without one, firms risk finding themselves operating in an environment where compliance with contractual obligations is not the norm.

The Doing Business project of the World Bank encompasses two types of data: data from readings of laws and regulations and data on time and motion indicators that measure efficiency in achieving a regulatory goal. Within the time and motion indicators cost estimates are recorded from official fee schedules where applicable. The data from surveys are subjected to numerous tests for robustness, which lead to revision or expansion of the information collected.


name: Time required to enforce a contract (days)

sourceNote: Time required to enforce a contract is the number of calendar days from the filing of the lawsuit in court until the final determination and, in appropriate cases, payment.


name: Europe & Central Asia (excluding high income)