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A copublication of the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation and Oxford University Press
© 2005 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank 1818 H Street NW Washington, D.C. 20433 Telephone 202-473-1000 Internet www.worldbank.org E-mail
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ISBN 0-8213-5748-4 ISSN 1729–2638 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data has been applied for.
Contents Doing Business in 2005 is the second in a series of annual reports investigating the scope and manner of regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. New quantitative indicators on business regulations and their enforcement can be compared across 145 countries—from Albania to Zimbabwe—and over time. Doing Business in 2004: Understanding Regulation presented indicators in 5 topics: starting a business, hiring and firing workers, enforcing contracts, getting credit and closing a business. Doing Business in 2005 updates these measures and adds another two sets: registering property and protecting investors. The indicators are used to analyze economic and social outcomes, such as productivity, investment, informality, corruption, unemployment, and poverty, and identify what reforms have worked, where and why.
Removing obstacles to growth: an overview
1
Measuring with impact
9
Starting a business
17
Hiring and firing workers
25
Registering property
33
Getting credit
41
Protecting investors
49
Enforcing contracts
59
Closing a business
67
References
75
Data Notes
79
Doing Business indicators
89
Country tables
98
Acknowledgment