In a new working paper, economist Simeon Djankov proposes how an independent, academic institution can continue the important work that the World Bank conducted for 20 years under its Doing Business project, but that the bank decided last year to put to an end.
As a reminder, the annual Doing Business report measured the ease of doing business in countries around the world on a range of indicators such as starting a business, paying taxes, enforcing contracts, etc. The report produced a sort of index on these indicators, showing how countries were doing with respect to each other and over time, and it served as a guide to policymakers and a useful resource for researchers, journalists, and others. It quickly became the World Bank’s preeminent flagship publication.
Over the years, the Doing Business report came under increasing criticism within the Bank and by outside groups that did not agree with the report’s pro‐market agenda, and the Bank responded to those and technical critiques by making some changes, as we’ve written about here, here, and here. Still, the report and its components remained an incredibly useful resource for countless research organizations worldwide with ongoing research projects. We rely on its data in the Human Freedom Index as does the Fraser Institute for its Economic Freedom of the World report, for example.
It was a serious mistake for the World Bank to discontinue the Doing Business report. It did so out of concerns about data irregularities for two years affecting four countries. Instead of instituting sensible, new measures on process and methodology as recommended by the firm that conducted an independent review for the World Bank, the bank chose to scrap the Doing Business report altogether. From the outside, it very much looks like the decade‐long campaign by critics of market‐oriented policies finally triumphed.
That’s a shame because the Doing Business report generated serious scholarship, and the World Bank was uniquely positioned to conduct that intensive project in the 190 countries it measured. In “Doing Business 2.0: A Better Guide for Policymakers,” Djankov reviews the academic and real‐world importance of Doing Business and proposes how an academic institution could feasibly carry on the Doing Business project in a way that improves the process and the product.
Source: Cato Institute
