World Bank: Reforms helping EU businesses, jobs

Features looks at the World Bank: Doing Business 2010 report issued in September 2009.

Doing Business 2010: Reforming through Difficult Times is the seventh in a series of annual reports investigating
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 183
economies, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, over time.

A set of regulations affecting 10 stages of a business’s life are measured : starting a business, dealing with
construction permits, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and closing a business. Data in Doing Business 2010: Reforming
through Difficult Times are current as of June 1, 2009*. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and
identify what reforms have worked, where, and why.

From the main volume you can download a subject section looking specifically at the EU as a region. This presents a summary of Doing Business indicators for European Union (EU). The data used for this regional profile come from the Doing Business database and are summarized in graphs. These graphs allow a comparison of the economies in each region not only with one another but also with the “good practice” economy for each indicator.

World Bank: Doing Business website http://www.doingbusiness.org/Default.aspx

World Bank: Doing Business 2010: The European Union http://www.doingbusiness.org/Documents/RegionalReports/DB10_European_Union.pdf

---