Examining the Effect of Ease of Doing Business on Exports in OECD Countries

According to Ricardo, countries will specialise in industries with a comparative cost advantage in international trade. In a dynamic context, comparative advantage can evolve as conditions change. The effects of business regulations on international trade are significant, mainly since a country's level of participation in global trade partly depends on the prevailing governance within the country. In this context, countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) diversify their exports similarly to the portfolio effect in finance to help stabilise export earnings in international trade. Exports of goods, services, and natural resources support economic growth and development. Export performance is influenced by how countries conduct and promote the development of their business processes. Conducting business processes is facilitated by accessible, reliable, and efficient systems. In this context, the quality and efficiency of a country's business environment is gauged by the Ease of Doing Business (EODB) index from the World Bank, with reforms encouraged through country benchmarking. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of EEC on export performance in OECD countries. In the study, EODB will be assessed as a significant dynamic that mediates export performance and development by influencing the efficiency of the business environment and trade processes. To analyse the relationship between dependent and independent variables moving together in a positive or negative direction, the Spearman correlation technique was employed. To ensure that the dependent variable (export data) is estimated across multiple independent variables, the multiple linear regression model, one of the machine learning methods, was utilised. According to the results obtained, it is evident that EODB and export performance in OECD countries generally exhibit a positive relationship as per machine learning multiple regression. The model indicates that EODB in these countries indirectly influences export performance at a moderate level and plays a mediating role.