Why ‘Doing Business’ with the World Bank May Be Bad for You

This paper critically examines the role of law in promoting economic development and argues that the most influential ‘law and development’ agenda—the World Bank Doing Business (DB) project—is not fit for purpose and should be replaced. The paper argues that the DB project and associated rankings embody a set of ideological and technical preferences whose relationship with economic development is at best uncertain. Context and cultural sensitivity are all important in the ‘real’ world and reducing complicated matters to a single ranking is not compatible with bringing about genuine improvements in the legal framework for doing business.