This page offers links to the methodologies for each Doing Business topic and to the Doing Business 2020 questionnaire instruments. Visitors can also download several research papers (and the original datasets) that contributed to this project.
In recent years, Doing Business introduced improvements to all of its indicator sets. In Doing Business 2015, getting credit and protecting minority investors broadened their existing measures, while resolving insolvency introduced new measures of quality. In Doing Business 2016, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property and enforcing contracts also introduced new measures of quality, and trading across borders introduced a new case scenario to increase the economic relevance. In Doing Business 2017, paying taxes introduced new measures of postfiling processes.
Each methodology expansion was recalculated for one year to provide comparable indicator values and scores for the previous year. Rankings are calculated for Doing Business 2020 only. Year-to-year changes in the number of economies, number of indicators and methodology affect the comparability of prior years.
Methodology | DB20 questionnaire instruments | Research papers supporting the methodology | Download dataset |
The Regulation of Entry (PDF, 131KB), by Djankov and others, Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 2002. | |||
Electricity Connections and Firm Performance in 183 countries, by Geginat and Ramalho, Energy Economics, October 2018. | |||
Private Credit in 129 Countries (PDF, 238KB), by Djankov, McLiesh and Shleifer, Journal of Financial Economics, May 2007. | |||
The Law and Economics of Self-Dealing (PDF, 816KB), by Djankov and others, Journal of Financial Economics, June 2008. | |||
The Effect of Corporate Taxes on Investment and Entrepreneurship, by Djankov and others, American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, July 2010. | |||
Trading on Time (PDF, 100KB), by Djankov and others, Review of Economics and Statistics, February 2010. | |||
Courts (PDF, 691KB), by Simeon Djankov and others, Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 2003. | |||
Debt Enforcement Around the World (PDF, 216KB), by Djankov and others, Journal of Political Economy, December 2008. |