NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

We’ve discussed the World Bank’s Doing Business report previously on this blog, and now the WB has made it so you can continue the conversation on their website. Check here for a link to the Doing Business discussion forum, open to thoughts and analysis from the general public.

There is plenty of good conversation fodder here- for one, the report finds, unsurprisingly, that the least amount of reforms were made by governments in the areas of labor laws and that 85% of reforms happen in the first 15 months of a new government. No big shock that business reforms are highly political, and that voters might take issue with their government making it easier for them to be fired or paid a low wage.Aside from points of the obvious like this, there are plenty of insights from Doing Business that merit further analysis, and at times the Bank can be unusually open to criticism, asking for example: ?Are countries beginning to “game” the ranking by reforming only those areas of business regulation covered by the report’s methodology?? Enter the forum to continue the dialogue, and have a great weekend!