They seek to revive Doing Business, the study that measures the barriers to private investment

“When the World Bank canceled its Doing Business report last year, created a huge information vacuum for economists and governments seeking to stimulate economic growth and reduce povertySimeon Djankov deduced in a new study outlining how to revive the report and published on July 27 by the Fraser Institute, an independent, nonpartisan Canadian think tank on public policy.

Djankov is Policy Director of the Financial Markets Group at the London School of Economics and founder of the Doing Business report. That report, established in 2003, measured the efficiency of government regulation in jurisdictions around the world, analyzing whether they created barriers to investment and prosperity.

In fact, the report was leading source of information on the global business environment, accounting for 65% of media and public citations in the area. At the same time, guided policymakers in developing countries to improve their business climate, leading to more investment and growth.

The study recommends that a consortium of universities revive the report, but with several key improvements, such as, review assumptions about administrative and judicial procedures and documents to reflect progress in the electronic transfer of documents, restore the labor regulation indicatordevelop an indicator on the positive role of government and distinguish between law and practice and develop a parallel set of indicators on the practice of regulation

According to Wilboor Brun, an economist at the Institute of Public Policies for Freedom (Populi), Djankov highlights in the report the importance of “work with academics in developing economies to create country reform case studies”.

Thus, he added that it is in this area that Populi has been carrying out work focused on reforming the business environment at the municipal level with the approach that has characterized the report. “The discussion of public policies based on technical analyzes on the cost of the processes that regulate business activity, focusing efforts on obtaining answers to the existing problems of regulation and moving towards regulatory frameworks typical of modern and competitive societies”, noted Brun.

“It’s worth the effort. revive the Doing Business report, reflect on what we know now and what answers remain elusiveand address these questions with existing studies or new research,” said Djankov.

Doing Business was the main source of information on the global business environment