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Measuring and analyzing country change in establishing ease of doing business using a revised version of World Bank's ease of doing business index

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  • Rogge, Nicky
  • Archer, Geoffrey

Abstract

The World Bank's Ease of Doing Business (EDB) index is well-known and widely used to quantify and monitor the ‘ease of doing business’ within a country. The index attracted notable criticism for being too reliant on a ‘one size fits all’ approach (equal weighting) to the weighting step of its construction. The present paper recomputes the EDB index by employing a more flexible ‘Benefit-of-Doubt’ weighting method. Using different versions of this method, changes in EDB are examined for the period 2010–2019, whilst grouping countries according to regional classifications as defined by the World Bank. In addition, year-by-year trends in the EDB index are explored. The results show considerable differences in changes in the EDB index both between and within different regions. Within some regions there were also signs of clustering in terms of similar rates of improvement or deterioration over time.

Suggested Citation

  • Rogge, Nicky & Archer, Geoffrey, 2021. "Measuring and analyzing country change in establishing ease of doing business using a revised version of World Bank's ease of doing business index," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 290(1), pages 373-385.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:290:y:2021:i:1:p:373-385
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2020.07.065
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    Cited by:

    1. Nicky Rogge & Alena Kolyaseva, 2022. "Measuring and comparing World Bank regions’ ‘ease of doing business’ opportunity sets," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 131-155, April.
    2. Matheus Pereira Libório & Lívia Maria Leite Silva & Petr Iakovlevitch Ekel & Letícia Ribeiro Figueiredo & Patrícia Bernardes, 2022. "Consensus-Based Sub-Indicator Weighting Approach: Constructing Composite Indicators Compatible with Expert Opinion," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 164(3), pages 1073-1099, December.
    3. Kalinichenko, Olena & Amado, Carla A.F. & Santos, Sérgio P., 2022. "Exploring the potential of Data Envelopment Analysis for enhancing pay-for-performance programme design in primary health care," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 298(3), pages 1084-1100.
    4. Jean Vasile Andrei & Luminita Chivu & Ileana Georgiana Gheorghe & Aleksandar Grubor & Teodor Sedlarski & Violeta Sima & Jonel Subić & Mile Vasic, 2021. "Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Business Demography and European Socio-Economic Model: Does the Paradigm Really Converge?," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-29, February.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Data envelopment analysis; Ease of doing business; Benefit-of-doubt; Composite Indicators; Window Analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General
    • C61 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Optimization Techniques; Programming Models; Dynamic Analysis
    • K00 - Law and Economics - - General - - - General (including Data Sources and Description)
    • K20 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - General
    • O50 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - General
    • O57 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Comparative Studies of Countries

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