Doing
Business
2020
Comparing Business
Regulation in
190 Economies
Doing
Business
2020
Comparing Business
Regulation in
190 Economies
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Attribution—Please cite the work as follows: World Bank. 2020. Doing Business 2020. Washington,
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ISBN (paper): 978-1-4648-1440-2
ISBN (electronic): 978-1-4648-1441-9
DOI: 10.1596/978-1-4648-1440-2
Cover design: Bill Pragluski, Critical Stages
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019951789
Resources on the
Doing Business website
Current features
News on the Doing Business project
http://www.doingbusiness.org
Historical data
Customized data sets since DB2004
http://www.doingbusiness.org/custom-query
Law library
Online collection of business laws and
regulations relating to business
http://www.doingbusiness.org/law-library
Contributors
More than 15,000 specialists in
190 economies who participate in
Doing Business
http://www.doingbusiness.org/contributors
/doing-business
Entrepreneurship data
Data on new business density (number
of newly registered companies per 1,000
working-age people) for 156 economies
http://www.doingbusiness.org/data
/exploretopics/entrepreneurship
Ease of doing business score
Data benchmarking 190 economies to
the best regulatory practice and an ease
of doing business score calculator
https://www.doingbusiness.org/data
/doing-business-score
Rankings
How economies rank—from 1 to 190
http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings
Data
All the data for 190 economies—topic
rankings, indicator values, lists of
regulatory procedures and details
underlying indicators
http://www.doingbusiness.org/data
Studies
Access to previous editions of Doing
Business as well as subnational and
regional studies, case studies and
customized economy and regional profiles
http://www.doingbusiness.org/reports
Methodology
The methodologies and research papers
underlying Doing Business
http://www.doingbusiness.org/methodology
Research
Abstracts of papers on Doing Business
topics and related policy issues
http://www.doingbusiness.org/research
Doing Business reforms
Short summaries of DB2020 business
regulation reforms and lists of reforms
since DB2006
http://www.doingbusiness.org/reforms
iii
Contents
vii Foreword
ix Acknowledgments
1 Overview
Tackling burdensome regulation
17 Chapter 1
About Doing Business
29 Chapter 2
The effects of business regulation
41 Chapter 3
Removing obstacles to entrepreneurship
57 Chapter 4
Employing workers
67 Chapter 5
Contracting with the government
77 Chapter 6
Ease of doing business score and ease of doing business ranking
87 Chapter 7
Summaries of Doing Business reforms in 2018/19
129 Chapter 8
References
Doing Business 2020 is the 17th in a
series of annual studies investigating
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.
Regulations affecting 12 areas of
the life of a business are covered:
starting a business, dealing with
construction permits, getting
electricity, registering property,
getting credit, protecting minority
investors, paying taxes, trading
across borders, enforcing contracts,
resolving insolvency, employing
workers, and contracting with the
government. The employing workers
and contracting with the government
indicator sets are not included in this
year’s ranking on the ease of doing
business.
Data in Doing Business 2020 are
current as of May 1, 2019. The
indicators are used to analyze
economic outcomes and identify
what reforms of business regulation
have worked, where and why.
v