Business Ready (B-READY), World Bank

Summary

Business Ready (B-READY)

The World Bank's "Business Ready" (B-READY) project is a new initiative launched to replace the discontinued "Doing Business" report. The B-READY project, which began its pilot phase in 2024, seeks to assess countries on ten key indicators, focusing on how business regulations are implemented in practice compared to what is written in law. Here are the new indicators will be provided in the BusinessReady. (https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/content/dam/enterprisesurveys/documents/methodology/Indicator-Description.pdf)

Doing Business

The World Bank has an annual global doing business report available here http://www.doingbusiness.org/. The Doing Business project faced criticism and was discontinued in 2021. In 2020, the World Bank halted the Doing Business report after an internal audit revealed that data had been improperly altered in past reports to boost the rankings of certain countries. Specifically, it was found that the rankings of China, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Azerbaijan had been adjusted inappropriately due to pressure from senior World Bank officials. In September 2021, the World Bank officially announced that it would discontinue the Doing Business report. The decision came after the findings of the investigation, which detailed significant ethical concerns, particularly with regards to the manipulation of rankings for political and economic reasons.

Tables In IFs: B-READY

Variable	Definition	Years	UsedInPreprocessorFileName	UsedInPreprocessor	Name in Source	Code in Source
BusReadyWBBusinessInsolvency	Measures the strength of insolvency rules, supporting institutions, and the time/cost efficiency of liquidating or restructuring firms	2024-2025	NULL	0	Business Insolvency	NULL
BusReadyWBBusinessLocation	Measures how effectively businesses can obtain a location to operate (buy, lease, or build) including property transfer and permitting	2024-2025	NULL	0	Business Location	NULL
BusReadyWBBusinessEntry	Measures how easy and efficient it is to legally register and start operating a new limited liability company.	2024-2025	NULL	0	Business Entry	NULL
BusReadyWBDisputeResolution	Measures the legal framework, court/ADR services, and time/cost/reliability of resolving commercial disputes and enforcing decisions.	2024-2025	NULL	0	Dispute Resolution	NULL
BusReadyWBFinancialServices	Measures how well firms can access and use finance—including lending, secured transactions, credit information, and e-payments—through rules, services, and efficiency	2024-2025	NULL	0	Financial Services	NULL
BusReadyWBInternationalTrade	Measures how supportive trade rules, infrastructure/border management, and compliance time/cost are for trading goods, services, and digital trade	2024-2025	NULL	0	International Trade	NULL
BusReadyWBLabor	Measures the quality of labor regulations, labor-related public services, and how efficiently labor rules work in practice for firms and workers.	2024-2025	NULL	0	Labor	NULL
BusReadyWBTaxation	Measures the quality of tax rules, tax administration services, and how effectively taxes are implemented in practice for businesses.	2024-2025	NULL	0	Taxation	NULL

Data Pulling Instructions: B-READY

Step - 1: The data can be accessed from the World Bank’s Business Ready 2025 page https://www.worldbank.org/en/businessready. By clicking on the "Download Data", the raw data can be downloaded either through CSV format or Excel format.

Step - 2: After downloading and extracting, you should see files similar to

• 00_B-READY-2025-DATA-README (PDF)
• 01_B-READY-2025-PILLAR-TOPIC-SCORES (Excel)
• 02_B-READY-2025-EconomyAnswer (Excel)

Open the README file and review file descriptions, definitions of pillars/topics, scoring structure, and any notes on missing values.

Step - 3: Open the main scoring workbook, 01_B-READY-2025-PILLAR-TOPIC-SCORES (Excel). This is the main file for pulling standardized scores by economy.

Step - 4: Navigate to the correct sheet/tab. Use the sheet tabs at the bottom depending on what you are pulling:

• 00_B-READY Pillar Score
• 01_Business_Entry
• 02_Business_Location
• 03_Utility_Services
• 04_Labor
• 05_Financial_Services
• 06_International_Trade …etc.

Step - 5: Pull ONLY the Overall Score column for each Topic Inside each topic sheet (e.g. 01_Business_Entry, 02_Business_Location ,etc.)

Step - 6: Export / Save your cleaned data. Copy the selected columns into a new Excel file, or Save the sheet as CSV for use in Python/SQL. Then import it the data into your .db

Data Notes

The data values for West Bank and Gaza should be used for Palestine. Be careful for countries names like Côte d'Ivoire and Türkiye, they are named differently in IFs (Cote D'Ivoire and Turkey respectively)

Tables In IFs: Doing Business Report

Variable	Definition	Years	UsedInPreprocessor	UsedInPreprocessorFileName	Name In Source	Code In Source
GovWBDoingBusConstructionPermitDays	The number of days need to get a construction permit	2004-2019	0		Time (days) construct permits	IC.CNST.PRMT.PROC.NO
GovWBDoingBusConstructionPermitProcedures	Number of procedures needed to get a construction permit	2004-2019	0		Procedures (number) construct permit	IC.CNST.PRMT.PROC.NO
GovWBDoingBusContainExportCostUSDNew	Cost of exporting one container in USD - border cost + documentation cost	2004-2019	0		Time (years)- resolving insolevency	TRD.ACRS.BRDR.EXPT.COST.BRDR.COMP.CD.DB1619 & TRD.ACRS.BRDR.EXPT.COST.DOC.COMP.CD.DB1619
GovWBDoingBusContainImportCostUSDNew	Cost of importing one container in USD - border cost + documentation cost	2004-2019	0		Time (years)- resolving insolevency	TRD.ACRS.BRDR.IMP.COST.BRDR.COMP.CD.DB1619 & TRD.ACRS.BRDR.IMP.COST.DOC.COMP.CD.DB1619
GovWBDoingBusContainerExportCostUSD	Cost of exporting one container in USD	2006-2014	0		Cost to export (US$ per container) old methodology-trade
GovWBDoingBusContainerImportCostUSD	Cost of importing one container in USD	2006-2014	0		Cost to import (US$ per container) old methodology-trade
GovWBDoingBusContractEnforceDays	Number of days required to enforce a contract	2004-2019	0		Time (days)- enforcing contracts	ENF.CONT.DURS.DY
GovWBDoingBusCostClose	Average cost of closing a business in percent of estate	2004-2019	0		Cost (% of estate)-resolving insolvency	RESLV.ISV.COST.ZS
GovWBDoingBusCreditTransparency	World Bank index on the depth of credit information (0-6)	2004-2019	0		Transparency of information index (0–6) reg prop	IC.CRED.ACC.DPTH.CISI.XD.06.DB0514
GovWBDoingBusDirectorLiability	World Bank index on the extent of director liability	2004-2019	0		Extent of director liability index (0-10)-min investor protect	PROT.MINOR.INV.IC.PRIN.EXT.DIR.LGL.010.XD
GovWBDoingBusDisclosureIndex	World Bank index on the extent of disclosure	2004-2019	0		Extent of disclosure index (0-10)- min investor protect	PROT.MINOR.INV.EXT.BUS.DISC.010.XD
GovWBDoingBusEmpRigiIndex	World Bank index on the rigidity of employment	2004-2010	0
GovWBDoingBusExportDocumentationNeeded	Number of documents needed to export	2004-2019	0		Documents to export (number) old methodology- trade	TRD.ACRS.BRDR.DOCS.EXPT.NO.DB0615
GovWBDoingBusHiringDiffIndex	World Bank index documenting the difficulty in hiring workers 0-100	2004-2010	0
GovWBDoingBusImportDays	Number of days required to import	2006-2014	0		Time to import (days) old methodology-trade
GovWBDoingBusImportDaysNew	Number of days required to import - border + doc	2004-2019	0		Time (years)- resolving insolevency	TRD.ACRS.BRDR.IMP.BRDR.COMP.HR.DB1619&TRD.ACRS.BRDR.IMP.DOC.COMP.HR.DB1619
GovWBDoingBusImportDocumentationNeeded	Number of documents needed to import	2004-2019	0		Documents to import (number) old methodology-trade	TRD.ACRS.BRDR.DOCS.IMP.NO.DB0615
GovWBDoingBusInvestorProtection	World bank index measuring the strength of investor protection (0-10)	2004-2019	0		Strength of investor protection index (0-10) old methodology-min investor protect	PROT.MINOR.INV.STRENG.INV.PROT.XD.010.DB0614
GovWBDoingBusLegalRightsStrengthIndex	World Bank index of the strength of legal rights, getting credit (0-10)	2004-2019	0		Strength of legal rights index (0-10) old methodology-getting credit	IC.CRED.ACC.LGL.RGHT.XD.010.DB0514
GovWBDoingBusPropertyProceduresRequired	Number of procedures required to register for property	2004-2019	0		Procedures (number) reg prop	IC.REG.PRRT.PROC.NO
GovWBDoingBusRedundancyCostperWeekSalary	Cost of firing a worker (in weeks of salary)	2004-2010	0
GovWBDoingBusRedundancyIndex	World Bank index on the difficulty in firing a worker	2004-2010	0
GovWBDoingBusTax%Profit	Total tax rate as a percentage of profit	2004-2019	0			PAY.TAX.TOT.TAX.RT.ZS
GovWBDoingBusTaxHoursperPerson	Number of hours per year a person works to pay taxes	2004-2019	0		Time (hours per year)-paying taxes	PAY.TAX.TM
GovWBDoingBusTimeClose	Average number of years needed to close a business	2004-2019	0		Time (years)- resolving insolevency	RESLV.ISV.DURS.YR
GovWBDoingBusTotalTaxRate	The total tax rate expressed as a share of commercial profits.	2005-2016	0		Total tax rate (% of commercial profit)
GovWBDoingBusinessProcedures	Number of procedures required to start a business	2004-2019	0		Procedures (number) starting a bus	IC.REG.PROC.MA.NO
GovWBDoingBusinessPropRegDays	Number of days required to registar property	2004-2019	0		Time (days) reg prop	IC.REG.PRRT.DURS.TM
GovWBDoingBusinessRanking	Total overall ranking of ease of doing business	2004-2019	0		Ease of Doing Business Rank
GovWBDoingBusinessStartDays	Number of days required to start a business	2004-2019	0		Time (days) starting a bus	IC.REG.DURS.MA.DY
GovBusinessRegulationIndex	A composit index of business environment indicators. Higher indicates a greater ease of doing business.	2004-2010	1	SOCIOPOL
GovBetterBusinessIndex	A composit index of bussness environment indicators. Higher indicates a greater regulatory burden on business.	2004-2010	0
GovWBDoingBusinessCostofStarting	Cost of registring a business as a percent of per capita income	2003-2019	1	SOCIOPOL	Cost of business start-up procedures (% of GNI per capita)

Data Pulling Instructions: Doing Business

1. The data can be accessed from the World Bank’s Doing Business database page http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/doing-business-database. By clicking on the tab entitled "Data & Resources", the raw data can be downloaded either through CSV format or Excel format.
2. Using Excel files as an example, the file contains three sheets with the names Data, Series, and Footnote. The Doing Business data was acquired from the Data tab. Prior to importing the data into the IFs, the raw data needs some pre-processing. The first step is to concord the country names with the IFs country names since the IFs does not have a specific country concordance list for Doing Business data. Then, the next step is to separate the data into several individual files based on different series. After those two procedures, the data should be ready for import.
3. One thing to note in the country concordance process is that there are some sub-areas in the data (e.g., China - Beijing). Those data should be ignored since we only care about the data in certain countries. However, data for areas like 'Hong Kong, China' would be different, we actually need the data for that. Thus, to differentiate from sub-areas and main areas, you should look for that dash symbol '-' (i.e., China - Beijing would be treated as a sub-area).
4. Certain series we had in the system are not being measured in the Doing Business data. Thus, series that were not included in the original downloaded data were typically not updated. Since the organization constantly updates their data and methodology each year, some series will not be concordant through years. Those series will need to be handled carefully.
5. Series that were not updated are as follows (11 series in total): BetterBusinessIndex, BusinessRegulationIndex, ConstructionPermitDays, ConstructionPermitProcedures, EmpRigiIndex, ExportDocumentationNeeded, ImportDocumentationNeeded, HiringDiffIndex, RedundancyCostperWeekSalary, RedundancyIndex, TotalTaxRate. Note that the Tax%Profit series was updated using the "Total tax rate (% of profit)" in the raw downloaded data.
6. Series that have been updated but need to be put on hold due to inconsistency in values through years are: SeriesGovWBDoingBusContainerExportCostUSD, SeriesGovWBDoingBusContainerImportCostUSD, SeriesGovWBDoingBusCreditTransparency, SeriesGovWBDoingBusImportDays, SeriesGovWBDoingBusLegalRightsStrengthIndex. Those 5 series in the most recent updated data only cover the years 2014-2017 while data in IFs covers 2006-2014. Moreover, the values in the overlapping year 2014 differ so much that we might need to create them as new series.

GovWBDoingBusImportDays; SeriesGovWBDoingBusContainerImportCostUSD; SeriesGovWBDoingBusContainerExportCostUSD.

GovWBDoingBusContainExportCostUSDNew, calculated by adding the Documentary compliance and Border compliance costs for import together.

GovWBDoingBusContainImportCostUSDNew, calculated by adding the Documentary compliance and Border compliance costs for export together.

GovWBDoingBusImportDaysNew, calculated by adding the Documentary compliance and Border compliance time for import together.

Data Pulling Instructions: Doing Business Report 2024 Update

For the 2024 update, the Doing Business project faced criticism and was discontinued in 2021.

We updated 1 series in preprocessor, GovWBDoingBusinessCostofStarting.

• Download archive corrected data from https://archive.doingbusiness.org/en/doingbusiness

  

• Open the downloaded file and in the "All Data" tab, find the Cost - Men (% of income per capita) and Cost - Women (% of income per capita) under Starting a business.

  

• Take an average of the 2 columns listed above to get the new values.
• Compare the new values with the values in IFs.
• Blend in the new values to the values in IFs followed by 2 rules:
  • If he new values are null, then use the values in IFs to fill the null.
  • If the new values are not null, then use the new values.
• The final series contains values from 2003 to 2020.