Thematic publications
Doing Business thematic publications provide a detailed look at a topic, such as paying taxes.
The latest thematic publications are listed below.
Doing Business thematic publications provide a detailed look at a topic, such as paying taxes.
The latest thematic publications are listed below.
This report, the fourteenth in a series from the World Bank Group and PwC, measures tax systems for a domestic company complying with tax laws and regulations in each economy. The case-study company is a medium-size manufacturer and retailer, chosen to ensure that its business can be identified with and compared worldwide. The report has historically measured the Total Tax and Contribution rate, the time needed to comply with the major taxes, and the number of tax payments. This is the fourth year the study includes a post-filing index that measures the process of claiming a Value-Added Tax refund and correcting a corporate income tax return.
This report, the thirteenth in a series from the World Bank Group and PwC, measures tax systems for a domestic company complying with tax laws and regulations in each economy. The case-study company is a medium-size manufacturer and retailer, chosen to ensure that its business can be identified with and compared worldwide. The report has historically measured the Total Tax and Contribution rate, the time needed to comply with the major taxes, and the number of tax payments. For the past two years, the study also includes a post-filing index that measures the process of claiming a Value-Added Tax refund and correcting a corporate income tax return.
The Road Costs Knowledge System (ROCKS) exercise is an empirical study of road-related projects completed by the World Bank Group (WBG) over the last 15 years. This exercise was developed in 2001 with the main objective of comparing the unit costs of different types of road works in different countries. ROCKS was last updated in late 2006.
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) account for over 90% of firms worldwide. Nevertheless, they face greater financing obstacles than larger firms—they enjoy less access to external finance and face higher transactions costs and higher risk premiums. This report focuses on practices aimed at improving SMEs access to finance in three areas—credit reporting, secured lending and insolvency. Each section uses data collected by the Doing Business team to describe how various practices recommended by existing research have been implemented in economies across the world.
The paper analyzes data on female and male entrepreneurship that were collected by the World Bank Group's Entrepreneurship Database. Recognizing the importance of a differentiated approach to entrepreneurship in terms of legal entities, the data on female and male business owners are collected at the level of limited liability companies and sole proprietorships. Forty-four of the 143 economies that participated in the Entrepreneurship project provided some sex-disaggregated data for 2016. The paper finds that the gender gap in business ownership remains high in many economies around the world. In the majority of the analyzed economies, less than one-third of new limited liability company owners are women. Although sole proprietorships are more frequently used by female entrepreneurs, only three economies have similar or equal number of women business owners relative to men. The gap in female entrepreneurship is especially apparent in low-income economies, where women are much less likely than men to start a new business.
This report, the twelfth in a series from the World Bank Group and PwC, measures tax systems for a domestic company complying with tax laws and regulations in each economy. The case-study company is a small to medium-size manufacturer and retailer, chosen to ensure that its business can be identified with and compared worldwide. The report has historically measured the Total Tax and Contribution, the time needed to comply with the major taxes, and the number of tax payments. Since last year the study also includes a new sub-indicator – the post-filing index that measures the process of claiming a Value-Added Tax refund and going through a corporate income tax audit.
This year Doing Business introduces a new index to measure the quality of the land administration. By expanding its focus on regulatory quality, the Registering Property indicator opens a new area for reforms. The new data on the quality of land administration provides information about good practices for policy makers. The case studies presented in this report span the globe— covering Lithuania, the Republic of Korea, Rwanda and the United Kingdom—and provide lessons on what it takes to succeed in the area of land administration.
Sweden’s overall regulatory business environment is among the most business friendly as measured by World Bank Group’s Doing Business, Foreign Direct Investment Regulations, and Women, Business and the Law.
Company registrars are deploying information and communications technology (ICT) applications to reduce the time and effort required for new businesses to register, improve regulatory oversight by government, and facilitate access to company information. A survey conducted by the Doing Business and investment climate teams of the World Bank Group examines the experience of 34 company registrars in implementing new or upgraded technology solutions. This note discusses the survey’s key findings, identifies several factors influencing the registrars’ approaches, and summarizes key lessons in choosing and implementing ICT solutions.
The Doing Business: Women in Africa report was released in April 2008 as part of a joint effort between the Doing Business project and the World Bank’s Gender Action Plan, which was launched in February 2007. The report showcases successful women entrepreneurs in seven African countries (Cameroon, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, and Uganda), explores how they overcame obstacles to business creation and growth, and highlights opportunities for regulatory reform.
This review finds that the Dutch regulatory reform programme is the world’s leader. Based on an innovative design—a 25% target reduction in regulatory costs, a link between regulatory reforms and the budget cycle, and the establishment of ACTAL (the Dutch Advisory Board on Administrative Burden) as an independent watchdog of the reforms—the program is well under way to reduce administrative burdens on businesses by the targeted 4 billion Euro.