Methodology & Research

This page offers links to the methodologies for each Doing Business topic. Visitors can also download several research papers (and the original datasets) that contributed to this project.

Find out more about the methodology and how it was improved in 2007.

Research Using Doing Business

Download a list of published articles and working papers that use data and analysis from the 10 background papers of Doing Business, as of June 10, 2007. (PDF, 216KB)
Methodology Survey instruments Research papers Download dataset
Starting a Business (PDF, 219KB) The Regulation of Entry (PDF, 131KB), by Djankov and others, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Feb. 2002.
dta format
Dealing with Licenses (PDF, 280KB)    
Employing Workers (PDF, 270KB) The Regulation of Labor (PDF, 270KB), by Botero and others, Quarterly Journal of Economics, June 2004.
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Registering Property (PDF, 239KB)    
Getting Credit (PDF, 290KB)
(PDF, 273KB)
(PDF, 277KB) 		Private Credit in 129 Countries (PDF, 238KB), by Djankov, McLiesh and Shleifer, Journal of Financial Economics, May 2007.
 Excel
Protecting Investors (PDF, 280KB) The Law and Economics of Self-Dealing (PDF, 266KB), by Djankov and others, Journal of Financial Economics, forthcoming. Excel
Paying Taxes (PDF, 135KB) The Effect of Corporate Taxes on Investment and Entrepreneurship, by Djankov and others (PDF, 761KB), forthcoming.
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Trading Across Borders (PDF, 209KB) Trading on Time (PDF, 427KB), by Simeon Djankov, Caroline Freund, and Cong S. Pham, August 2007.
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Enforcing Contracts (PDF, 234KB) Courts (PDF, 691KB), by Simeon Djankov and others, Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 2003.
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Closing a Business (PDF, 207KB) Debt Enforcement Around the World (PDF, 238KB), by Djankov and others, Dec. 2006.
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Infrastructure*      
Transparency* (PDF, 271KB)    

* Topic may be included in Doing Business 2009.