Learning Objectives:

1-       Understand those factors that enhance business activity and those that constrain it

2-       Formulate quantitative measurement of business regulations in a country

3-       Relate the degree of business regulations to such factors as pace of economic development, GDP per capita, and others

4-       Understand how to evaluate regulatory attractiveness of a foreign country market.

Prepared by the World Bank, the Doing Business database provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement. The Doing Business indicators are calculated and reported for 155 economies. They indicate the regulatory costs of business and can be used to analyze specific regulations that enhance or constrain investment, productivity and growth.

Please review the overall rankings by visiting:

http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings/

YOUR ASSIGNMENT:

Answer ALL the following questions in order. You must be organized, professional and succinct in order to stay within the page limits. 

1-       What are your initial impressions of the country rankings in the Doing Business study? What is unique to the top 10 countries according to the ease of doing business (EDB) scale, and what is unique to those countries to where EDB is highly unfavorable?  (5 points)

2-       Please review the methodology used by the World Bank in capturing the EDB rankings. What are the limitations of this methodology? From your knowledge of country business environments, do the ten overall indicators of EDB capture all of the key determinants? Explain why or why not. (10 points)

3-       Pick any ONE of the following industry sectors: computer manufacturing, recording industry, casual apparel, and luxury women’s accessories. Now, you will further refine the EDB rankings to fit the particular needs of your selected industry segment. Do this by developing your own weighting scheme, for customizing the World Bank’s EDB rankings, by picking your top three weightiest indicators from those given. Explain the rationale for your choices. (15 points)

4-       Consider the market potential index for emerging markets identified by http://globaledge.msu.edu/resourcedesk/mpi/  Make your choice of the most attractive country for your selected industry (in qs. 3 above) to enter over the next few years. Further, explain and justify  the choice of your recommended country based on the GlobalEdge factors.  (10 points)

GRADING RUBRIC: Total  =  50.

Format and professional language = 5 points

Logical flow/reasoning = 5 points

Answers to questions:  qs. 1 = 5 points; qs. 2 = 10 points;  qs. 3 = 15 points; qs. 4 = 10 points