Taking care of business

By Economist.com

Data on doing business from the World Bank illustrates the rise of the business-friendly autocracy

THE International Finance Corporation and the World Bank have been compiling rankings of the ease of doing business in countries around the world since 2003. A key component of the measure involves the setting up of a fantasy company in each jurisdiction and working out how long it takes to become incorporated, pay taxes and so on. Business conditions have improved almost everywhere in the past few years. Plotting numbers from the latest "Doing Business" report, published on October 23rd, against Transparency International's corruption perceptions index, it seems clear that corrupt public officials make it harder for companies to operate. But a second, more surprising, finding concerns the improvement in business conditions since 2005 of several regimes that look to clean, efficient, nanny-state Singapore (ranked first) as a model rather than to America or Europe. Behold the rise of the business-friendly autocracy.