10 YEARS OF DOING BUSINESS: THE IMPACT OF REGULATORY REFORMS CALL FOR PAPERS Private sector development is essential for

long-run economic growth and job creation. Government policies can either help or hinder this process. Beyond macroeconomic policies and the provision of infrastructure, the regulatory environment is key to shaping incentives facing the private sector and affects the costs and risks associated with running a business and the extent of competition faced by firms. Efforts to lower the cost of regulatory compliance, to improve the efficiency of regulations, and to strengthen property, creditor and investor rights have received increased attention in recent years. Doing Business has made detailed, comparable information on the regulatory environment available for 183 countries, covering 10 areas of business regulation. Since its initial publication in 2003, it has attracted considerable attention to the importance of improving the regulatory environment for business, and of supporting private sector led growth and job creation. Doing Business has inspired hundreds of regulatory reforms efforts, which offer the potential for significant improvements in the ease of doing business. The year 2012 marks the tenth anniversary of Doing Business and seems an appropriate time to assess the extent to which Doing Business has served to catalyze broader business reform initiatives, and how the impact of reforms measured by Doing Business compare to other efforts to spur private sector development. The aim of Ten Years of Doing Business is to take stock of what has been achieved and reflect on the lessons can guide the project and regulatory reform efforts in the years to come. A conference, co-sponsored by the World Bank and the Center for Business and Public Policy at Georgetown University, will take place in the fall of 2012 at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. The target audience will include researchers, staff from international organizations (e.g., World Bank Group, OECD), think tanks and others working on development and private sector issues. The format of the conference will include both keynote speaker sessions and parallel sessions, at which more than one paper will be presented. The aim of the conference is to bring together the latest research findings regarding the impact of the regulatory environment and reforms on economic outcomes related to private sector growth. The purpose is to better understand what works, what does not work, and why. As the topic being examined is of primary interest, papers that use measures of regulatory environment other than Doing Business will also be considered. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: 1. The impact of business regulation reforms: Rigorous studies that examine the impact of specific regulatory reforms or programs of reform on a variety of outcomes, such as firm formality, employment, investment, productivity and growth. 2. The interaction effects between different types of business regulation reforms: Micro- or macro- level analyses that investigate the impact of combining or sequencing different regulatory reforms on economic outcomes.

3. The political economy of business regulation reforms: Which factors determine whether business regulation reforms are implemented and whether reforms are far-reaching? Does a focus on Doing Business reforms crowd out or make room for other private sector reforms? Why do certain burdensome regulations and procedures remain in many economies? Which factors determine whether a country implements partial or comprehensive business regulation reforms? 4. Business regulation and governance: To what extent does simplifying regulations lower corruption? How does governance affect the impact of regulatory reforms? 5. Strengths and weaknesses of current Doing Business indicators: How well do the current indicators capture the true burdens of regulations on firms? To what extent are the indicators able to track broader regulatory reforms or are they easily manipulated? Are the reforms registered by Doing Business also reflected in business barometers, GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) measures of attitudes to entrepreneurship, or other measures of the perceptions of entrepreneurs on the ground? That is, do reforms improve the perceptions of entrepreneurs? Doing Business was also influential in focusing the attention of the World Bank Group on actionable indicators. The sets of indicators that were developed based on the Doing Business methodology include: Subnational Doing Business, Investing Across Borders (http://iab.worldbank.org/) and Women, Business and the Law (http://wbl.worldbank.org/). Subnational Doing Business expands the Doing Business indicators to cities other than the major business city. Investing Across Borders compares regulation of foreign direct investment around the world, by presenting quantitative indicators on how the laws, regulations, and practices of economies affect how foreign companies invest across sectors, start businesses, access industrial land and arbitrate commercial disputes. Women, Business and the Law presents indicators based on laws and regulations affecting women's prospects as entrepreneurs and employees. Submission requirements: Papers and extended abstracts may be submitted to Rita Ramalho (rramalho@ifc.org) by April 31st, 2012. Authors will be informed of the selection committees decision by May 31st, 2012. Completed papers must be submitted by September 15th, 2012. Papers will be considered for publication in the World Bank Economic Review (http://wber.oxfordjournals.org/). The selection of papers will be done by World Bank Group staff, the editors of the World Bank Economic Review and the faculty of Georgetown University. All papers and conference materials will also be made available on the Doing Business website (www.doingbusiness.org), which received 2.5 million visits last year. For further information, please contact Rita Ramalho (rramalho@ifc.org)