Doing Business

The World Bank has an annual global doing business report available here <http://www.doingbusiness.org/>. The latest data has been pulled from the 2017 report.

Series pulled from the World Bank Doing Business report 

Table

SeriesGovBetterBusinessIndex

SeriesGovBusinessRegulationIndex

SeriesGovWBDoingBusConstructionPermitDays

SeriesGovWBDoingBusConstructionPermitProcedures

SeriesGovWBDoingBusContainerExportCostUSD

SeriesGovWBDoingBusContainerImportCostUSD

SeriesGovWBDoingBusContractEnforceDays

SeriesGovWBDoingBusCostClose

SeriesGovWBDoingBusCreditTransparency

SeriesGovWBDoingBusDirectorLiability

SeriesGovWBDoingBusDisclosureIndex

SeriesGovWBDoingBusEmpRigiIndex

SeriesGovWBDoingBusExportDocumentationNeeded

SeriesGovWBDoingBusHiringDiffIndex

SeriesGovWBDoingBusImportDays

SeriesGovWBDoingBusImportDocumentationNeeded

SeriesGovWBDoingBusinessProcedures

SeriesGovWBDoingBusinessPropRegDays

SeriesGovWBDoingBusinessRanking

SeriesGovWBDoingBusinessStartDays

SeriesGovWBDoingBusInvestorProtection

SeriesGovWBDoingBusLegalRightsStrengthIndex

SeriesGovWBDoingBusPropertyProceduresRequired

SeriesGovWBDoingBusRedundancyCostperWeekSalary

SeriesGovWBDoingBusRedundancyIndex

SeriesGovWBDoingBusShareholderSuits

SeriesGovWBDoingBusTax%Profit

SeriesGovWBDoingBusTaxHoursperPerson

SeriesGovWBDoingBusTimeClose

SeriesGovWBDoingBusTotalTaxRate

Instructions on pulling doing business series 

1. First I downloaded the data from the World Bank’s Doing Business database page http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/doing-business-database by clicking on the link entitled "Doing Business(Excel)"
2. This World Bank file contains three sheets with the names Data, Series, and Footnote. The Doing Business data was pulled from the Data tab. Prior to pulling the data from the Doing Business file, the country names were concorded with IFs country names. This resulted in some of the territories in the original World Bank file being excluded from what was imported into IFs.
3. Certain series we had in the system are not being measured in the Doing Business data. If the data was included in the original download spreadsheet, then it was nearly always marked as Old methodology. Series that were not included in this data were typically not updated last time this data was pulled as well. 
4. Old series that were not updated are as follows: Rigidity of employment, difficulty of hiring, worker redundancy, redundancy index, average days to clear customs, and total tax rate (not a percentage of profit). The first four fall into the Labor Market regulation data, which the World Bank didn't include in their index of ease of doing business. There is separate data for this, however, the variables still don't seem to quite match up. There is no redundancy Index, there is no difficulty of hiring index, or rigidity of employment index. Average days to clear customs used old methodology. Total tax rate % profit was changed to Total tax rate % commercial profits the previous time this was pulled. 

Model implications

What are the biggest differences (in both relative and absolute terms) in 2015? 2050? 2100?

What are the effects of these changes on other variables in the model?

Any other major changes or anomalies?