Evaluating Starting a Business Indicators Innovation in the World

Since 2003, the World Bank has produced an annual report ranking economies based on ease of doing business score. However, little is known whether the improvements made by evaluated economies on starting business indicators are statistically significant, as claimed by the World Bank. This study aims to evaluate the extent to which starting business indicators were improved in the 145 economies evaluated. Indicators assessed are starting a business score (SBS), starting a business procedure for men (SBPM), starting a business time for men (SBTM), starting a business cost for men (SBCM), starting a business procedure for women (SBPW), starting a business time for women (SBTW), starting a business cost for women (SBCW), and starting a business in paid-in minimum capital (SBPMC). This study used secondary quantitative data retrieved from the database of the World Bank for the 2004 and 2020 periods. The sample size was made up of 145 economies. Wilcoxon-sign-rank-test-paired-sample was computed using the R programming environment. The results of the Wilcoxon-sign-rank-test-paired-sample indicated that the mean differences are statistically different from zero for all indicators except those evaluated. This means that the economies evaluated improved those indicators for 2020 compared to 2004. The study's findings provide clear insight to policymakers regarding innovations made to ease of doing business improvement. Better use of the results of this study would reduce corruption and increase formal business, increase the number of newly registered businesses, increase business opportunities for starting a new business, and increase companies' productivity. This study evaluated whether business regulations implemented regarding starting a business were statically significant. Future research should be conducted to empirically test the significance of implemented procedures related to other indicators evaluated in doing business reports. This research is novel by empirically testing innovations made in 145 world economies on starting business requirements.