THE WORLD BANK SAYS IT WILL REDO ITS COMPETITIVENESS RANKINGS AFTER UNFAIRLY INFLUENCING THEM FOR YEARS

January 15, 2018 in News by RBN Staff

 

via: BLACKLISTED NEWS | SOURCE: BUSINESS INSIDER

The World Bank’s chief economist, Paul Romer, told The Wall Street Journal on Friday that the organization changed the methodology of its “Doing Business” rankings in ways that were unfair and misleading, and the organization will recalculate the rankings for at least the past four years.

The “Doing Business” report ranks countries by things like the ease of opening a business, obtaining construction permits, getting credit, or paying taxes. Countries get penalized for things seen as making the business environment more complicated or onerous. The rankings are one of the World Bank’s most prominent initiatives.

Romers’ promised revision could affect the rankings of a number of countries, but Chile may see the most significant adjustment. Romer told The Journal that changes to the South American country’s rank stemmed from methodological adjustments rather than a deterioration in the country’s business environment and could have been affected by political motivations among the World Bank’s staff.

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