Economic growth is below what would be needed to resume rapid convergence to average OECD living standards. On-going efforts to improve the business climate are laudable, but need to be widened and strengthened. Much progress has been achieved in reducing red tape, but it is only recently that...

The Global Competitiveness Report 2013-2014 has been published. Its findings are virtually the same as in the report for the previous year which was analyzed in the Gaidar Institute’s August Review. In the business climate, the most difficult sitution for more than a single year has prevailed...

The authors survey the recent literature which examines the impact of the business climate on productivity and growth in developing countries using enterprise surveys. Comparable enterprise surveys today cover more than 100,000 firms in 123 countries. The literature that has analyzed this data...