Overview

Doing Business 2020, a World Bank Group flagship publication, is the 17th in a series of annual studies measuring the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 190 economies—from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe—and over time.

Doing Business covers 12 areas of business regulation. Ten of these areas—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—are included in the ease of doing business score and ease of doing business ranking. Doing Business also measures regulation on employing workers and contracting with the government, which are not included in the ease of doing business score and ranking.

By documenting changes in regulation in 12 areas of business activity in 190 economies, Doing Business analyzes regulation that encourages efficiency and supports freedom to do business. The data collected by Doing Business address three questions about government. First, when do governments change regulation with a view to developing their private sector? Second, what are the characteristics of reformist governments? Third, what are the effects of regulatory change on different aspects of economic or investment activity? Answering these questions adds to our knowledge of development.

Data in Doing Business 2020 are current as of May 1, 2019.

Main findings:

• Doing Business 2018: Reforming to Create Jobs reveals that entrepreneurs in 119 economies observed improvements in the local regulatory frameworks last year. The report, which compares 190 economies throughout the world, documented 264 business reforms between June 2016 and June 2017. Out of the reforms to reduce complexity and the cost of enforcing business legislation, those identified in the areas of starting a business and getting credit were the most common in 2016/2017. The next most common reforms took place in the trading across borders area. Read about the reforms implemented (in English).
• Brunei Darussalam, Thailand, Malawi, Kosovo, India, Uzbekistan, Zambia, Nigeria, Djibouti and El Salvador are the economies that improved the most in the 2016/2017 period in the areas evaluated by Doing Business. Together, these are the ten economies with the most significant global improvement and they implemented 53 regulatory reforms that facilitate doing business.
• Economies in all the regions are implementing reforms that facilitate doing business. Europe and Central Asia continue to be the regions with the greatest proportion of economies where at least one reform has been implemented – 79% of the economies in the region have implemented at least one regulatory reform –, followed by Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
• The report includes four case studies in the areas of starting a business, dealing with construction permits, paying taxes and resolving insolvency. It also includes the labor market regulation indicator as an appendix. See the case studies (in English).

Information taken from: https://www.doingbusiness.org/en/reports/global-reports/doing-business-2020