A World Bank economist apologized for unfair country rankings and will redo four years of results
Monday, January 15, 2018
The World Bank’s annual ranking of countries by ease of doing business has been compromised by politicized methodology, the bank’s top economist told the Wall Street Journal (paywall). The primary victim? The country of Chile.
The high-profile rankings are intended to encourage governments to remove obstacles to business and incentivize economic development. The report combines measures of how easy it is for an entrepreneur to start a business, obtain credit, pay taxes and enforce contracts, among other things.
Paul Romer, the World Bank’s Chief Economist since late 2016, found irregularities in how the survey’s methodology was updated from year to year, and intends to correct and republish the ranking for the past four years.
