World Bank

The database quantifies the regulations that affect business development. The Doing Business indicators are comparable for 181 economies. They take into account the costs of regulation in the private sector and can be used to analyze specific regulations in order to reduce restrictions on investment, productivity and growth.

World Bank

Based on surveys of 90,000 companies, this site contains information on the investment environment in 111 countries. It provides indicators on productivity, the regulatory framework, informal business and other factors that affect how businesses operate.

World Bank

FIAS advises the governments of developing countries on strategies to attract foreign direct investment and maximize its impact on poverty reduction. FIAS focuses on six areas:

1. Assessment of the business environment;
2. Foreign investment policies to attract investors, including laws and regulations, tax incentives, competition policies, access to land, and the implementation of contracts and loans with guarantees
3. Reforms to reduce administrative red tape
4. Investment promotion
5. Solutions aimed at specific sectors
6. Corporate social responsibility

International Finance Corporation

This report examines the ability of 181 countries to influence foreign investors' site selection process. It examines the effectiveness of foreign investment promotion agencies.

World Bank

ICAs are an initiative to systematically evaluate the conditions for private investment and business growth at the global level. They offer tools and an analytic framework to identify priority reforms in a country’s investment environment that will reduce institutional costs and increase productivity, among other variables.

Property Rights Alliance

IPRI 2009 is a comparative study that measures the impact of physical and intellectual property rights on economic well-being. The index focuses on three areas: political and legal environment, physical property rights and intellectual property rights. Conducted in over 110 countries, it includes information from many different sources.

PricewaterhouseCoopers

The Global PwC survey is presented every year at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Over one thousand CEOs of multinational corporations are interviewed in 50 countries to observe trends and behavior in global investment and strategies.

World Bank

The WBES survey was administered to more than 10,000 firms in 80 countries in late 1999 and early 2000. Questions focused on the quality of the investment environment as shaped by a country’s domestic economic policy; governance; regulatory framework; infrastructure; and financial impediments; and assessments of the quality of public services.

World Bank

The WGI project reports governance indicators for nearly 200 countries up to 2007. It includes six dimensions of governance:

1. Voice and accountability
2. Political stability and absence of violence
3. Government effectiveness
4. Regulatory quality
5. Rule of law
6. Control of corruption

World Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)

Administered to over 20,000 firms in 36 transition countries in four rounds (1999, 2002, 2004 and 2005), this survey examines a broad set of interactions between business and government. The results of direct interviews with company executives and owners lead to the design of comparative measurements in areas such as corruption, the effect of lobbies on public administration and the quality of the business environment.

Transparency International (TI)

The CPI, published since 1995, is the TI tool that put the issue of corruption on the international policy agenda. The CPI ranks 180 countries by their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys.

The Heritage Foundation

Practical reference list of the economies of 183 countries, with detailed information on: foreign investment regulations, trade policy, tax burden and government intervention, monetary policy, banking and finance, wages and prices, property rights, regulations and informal markets.

The Fraser Institute

This index measures the degree to which institutions and policies support economic freedom in 141 countries. Thirty-eight components and sub-components are included to build an index that evaluates the degree of economic freedom in five areas:

1. Size of government
2. Legal framework and protection of property rights
3. Access to capital
4. International trade
5. Regulations governing credit, the labor market and business

The World Economic Forum

Broad-based evaluation of economic performance in countries, based on multiple factors. Gathers information through surveys that compile the perceptions and observations of business leaders in each country.

The International Institute for Management Development (IMD)

Annual report on the competitiveness of nations, ranking and analyzing how a country’s environment creates and sustains the competitiveness of enterprises. Measures 57 countries on the basis of 329 criteria. Data are grouped in four factors of competitiveness:

1. Economic performance
2. Government effectiveness
3. Business performance
4. Infrastructure

Latinobarómetro Corporation

Annual opinion survey, with approximately 19,000 interviews conducted in 18 countries throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Observes the development of democracies, economies and societies, using indicators of attitude, opinion and behavior.

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

Includes detailed information on foreign direct investment (FDI), transnational operations, basic financial information on major corporations, the legal framework in which investments are made and a list of reference works on FDI.

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

Focuses on trends in foreign direct investment (FDI) worldwide, at the regional and country levels, and emerging measures to improve its contribution to development Each edition contains: an analysis of previous trends in FDI, a ranking of the largest transnational corporations, an in-depth analysis of topics related to FDI, policy recommendations and a statistical annex with data on FDI flows and stocks for 196 economies.