Regulation: Complexity of starting a business

The World Bank Doing Business survey is the most comprehensive comparative survey on the regulatory burden on small and medium business across the globe.  The survey ranks 181 countries from 1 to 181, with 1 being the most conducive environment. The Starting a Business metric covers a number of criteria including the time to register a business, registration fees, procedures, and minimum capital requirements.

The ranking directly measures that regulatory environment for starting a new business, but is also a great indicator for economic competitiveness. Lower entry costs facilitate the greater flow of capital and labor across industries and drives higher productivity of 20%-30%.

Hungary, Canada and the United States have the simplest environment and regulations for starting a new business. India, which places near the middle of the pack, has an opportunity for improvement, but does better on this metric than most other indices in the Doing Business Survey. Many of the other large outsourcing locations including China and the Philippines are at the bottom of the list with very challenging environments.