Doing Business in 2005 is the second in a series of
annual reports investigating the scope and manner
of regulations that enhance business activity and
those that constrain it. New quantitative indicators
on business regulations and their enforcement can
be compared across 145 countries—from Albania to
Zimbabwe—and over time. Doing Business in 2004:
Understanding Regulation presented indicators in 5
topics: starting a business, hiring and firing workers,
enforcing contracts, getting credit and closing a business.
Doing Business in 2005 updates these measures
and adds another two sets: registering property and
protecting investors. The indicators are used to analyze
economic and social outcomes, such as productivity,
investment, informality, corruption, unemployment,
and poverty, and identify what reforms have worked,
where and why.