Doing Business Under Attack

The Doing Business project is among the World Bank’s most useful activities – both for scholars and, more importantly, for policymakers who are interested in pursuing pro-market reforms. It is disheartening to see that the review of the project, initiated last year by the Bank’s President Jim Yong Kim, has been hijacked by groups like Oxfam, Christian Aid or CAFOD, which are trying to erode the project’s analytical sharpness and destroy its role as a focal point for economic reformers in low- and mid-income countries. Perhaps they would like to see it scrapped altogether.

Marian Tupy and I are discussing the controversy, and offering arguments in favor of the Doing Business project in our article at Foreign Policy. Bottom line:

It is true that Doing Business is not an ideal metric of business environment: Nothing is. Yet over the past decade the survey has proven an extremely useful tool both for scholars and businesspeople who want to compare the ease of actually conducting business in different countries, and for policymakers trying to foster the development of the private sector. Unless someone comes up with a better alternative, discarding or watering down this metric is likely to lead to less well-informed choices about policy.

We may disagree about the relative importance of a good business environment for poor countries. Yet few would suggest that it should be simply ignored. It's difficult to avoid the impression that Doing Business is currently coming under attack by groups with ulterior motives, groups who are inimical to a pro-market and pro-growth policy agenda. Given the extraordinary economic and human progress achieved in the last few decades through deliberate improvements to business environment, one hopes that the Doing Business project remains central to the World Bank's portfolio of activities.