DEVELOPING COUNTRIES OVER-REGULATE

It turns out that in poor countries it is almost impossibly difficult to get through the red tape required to start a formal business.

Doing Business in 2004: Understanding Regulation
This is the first in a series of annual reports presenting new quantitative indicators on the performance of business regulations which can be compared across more than 130 countries, and over time. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms have worked, where, and why. The overview of the report and its table of contents are available online, while the whole report is available in hard copy for a fee. The report was prepared by a team led by Simeon Djankov, the World Bank, 2003. (PDF, 20 pages)

An article, “Poverty's chains,” based on the World Bank report is in the current Economist magazine.