Partner Philip Coulson contributed towards the Doing Business 2018: Reforming to Create Jobs report, the 15th in an annual series of reports measuring the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it.

Doing Business measures the processes for starting a business, obtaining a building permit, getting an electricity connection, transferring property, paying taxes, taking a commercial dispute to court, and resolving an insolvency case, as well as credit and equity market regulations and logistics of importing and exporting goods.

There are many other factors that influence firm decisions—such as the availability of skilled labor or market size—that are not captured in Doing Business. But Doing Business focuses on key areas of interaction between the government and entrepreneurs, where policy makers and regulators can directly influence procedures to facilitate these interactions.