Description
The ease of doing business index was an index created jointly by Simeon Djankov, Michael Klein, and Caralee McLiesh, three leading economists at the World Bank Group, following the release of World Development Report 2002.[1][2][3] The academic research for the report was done jointly with professors Edward Glaeser, Oliver Hart, and Andrei Shleifer. Though the first report was authored by Djankov, Klein, and McLiesh, and they continue to be listed as “founders” of the report, some sources attribute the genesis of the idea to Djankov and Gerhard Pohl.[4][5] Higher rankings (a low numerical value) indicated better, usually simpler, regulations for businesses and stronger protections of property rights. Empirical research funded by the World Bank to justify their work show that the economic growth effect of improving these regulations is strong.[6] Other researchers find that the distance-to-frontier measure introduced in 2016 after a decision of the World Bank board is not correlated with subsequent economic growth or investment.[7]
“World Development Report 2002”, the basis of the research behind Doing Business, analyzes how to build effective institutions.[8] In understanding what drives institutional change, the report emphasizes the importance of history, highlighting the need to ensure effective institutions through a design that complements existing institutions, human capabilities, and available technologies. The study was guided by Joseph Stiglitz and Roumeen Islam with principal authors Simeon Dyankov and Aart Kraay. Several background papers, including by Nobel Prize winners Robert Shiller, Amartya Sen and Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez, were published in academic journals or books.[9][10][11][12][13]
The report was discontinued by the World Bank on September 14, 2021 following an audit documenting how bank leadership pressured experts to manipulate the results of the 2018 and 2020 reports.[14][15][16] Several organizations have proposed replacements, including the Antigua Forum, the World Bank, and the Fraser Institute.[17][18][19][20] In 2023 the Templeton Foundation extended a grant to Professor Robert Lawson at Southern Methodist University to propose a methodology for restarting the project in academia.[21]
The World Bank released the methodology for the replacement of the index in May 2023. For each of the twelve topic areas, the document provides the motivation, selected indicators, detailed questionnaires, benchmarking parameters, detailed scoring rules, and data collection sources. The World Bank conducted a series of methodology workshops worldwide. Their main purpose was to provide a detailed presentation on the project’s methodology, including overall scope and topic-specific information. The workshops also served to raise awareness about this new benchmarking initiative and disseminate its potential for reform advocacy, policy advice, and development research. The relaunch is scheduled for October 2024, after two delays.
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