Territory of Norfolk Island | Bailiwick of Guernsey | Collectivity of Saint-Barthélemy | Åland Islands | Republic of Kosovo | Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha | Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China | Territory of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands | Wales | Bailiwick of Jersey | Territory of Christmas Island | Territory of the Wallis and Futuna Islands | Bouvet Island | Northern Ireland | United States Minor Outlying Islands | Principality of Monaco | Antarctica | Isle of Man | Republic of Namibia | British Indian Ocean Territory | Vatican City State | South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands | Saint Pierre and Miquelon | Republic of the Marshall Islands | Scotland | Svalbard and Jan Mayen | Territory of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands | Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands | Greenland | Department of Mayotte | England | Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands | Republic of Nauru | Falkland Islands | Tokelau | Western Sahara | Ease of shareholder suits index (0-10) (DB15-20 methodology)
The ease of shareholder suits index measures how likely plaintiffs are to access internal corporate evidence and recover legal expenses. It has six components: (i) whether shareholders owning 10% of the company’s share capital have the right to inspect the Buyer-Seller transaction documents before filing a suit. Alternatively, whether they can request that a government inspector investigate the Buyer-Seller transaction without filing a suit; (ii) what range of documents is available to the shareholder plaintiff from the defendant and witnesses during trial; (iii) whether the plaintiff can obtain cate­gories of relevant documents from the defendant without identifying each document specifically; (iv) whether the plaintiff can directly examine the defendant and witnesses during trial; (v) whether the standard of proof for civil suits is lower than that for criminal cases; and (vi) whether shareholder plaintiffs can recover their legal expenses from the company. The index is computed based on the methodology in the DB15-20 studies. Development relevance: Minority investors protection plays a crucial part in addressing many corporate governance issues. One of the most important problems in corporate governance is self-dealing—the use of corporate assets by company insiders for personal gain. Empirical research shows that stricter regulation of self-dealing is associated with greater equity investment and lower concentration of ownership. Corporate governance standards on board composition and independence, firm transparency and disclosure, and shareholders' rights relative to the board of directors and management can minimize the agency problem between majority and minority shareholders as well as that between minority shareholders and the board of directors and management. Limitations and exceptions: The Doing Business methodology has five limitations that should be considered when interpreting the data. First, for most economies the collected data refer to businesses in the largest business city and may not be representative of regulation in other parts of the economy. Second, the data often focus on a specific business form—generally a limited liability company (or its legal equivalent) of a specified size—and may not be representative of the regulation on other businesses. Third, transactions described in a standardized case scenario refer to a specific set of issues and may not represent the full set of issues that a business encounters. Fourth, the measures of time involve an element of judgment by the expert respondents. When sources indicate different estimates, the time indicators reported in Doing Business represent the median values of several responses given under the assumptions of the standardized case. Finally, the methodology assumes that a business has full information on what is required and does not waste time when completing procedures. In practice, completing a procedure may take longer if the business lacks information or is unable to follow up promptly. Alternatively, the business may choose to disregard some burdensome procedures. For both reasons the time delays reported in Doing Business would differ from the recollection of entrepreneurs reported in the World Bank Group Enterprise questionnaires or other firm-level questionnaires.. Statistical concept and methodology: Data are collected by the World Bank Group with a standardized questionnaire that uses a simple business case to ensure comparability across economies and over time—with assumptions about the legal form of the business, its size, its location and nature of its operation. Questionnaires are administered to more than 13,800 local experts, including lawyers, business consultants, accountants, freight forwarders, government officials and other professionals routinely administering or advising on legal and regulatory requirements. The Doing Business data are based on a detailed reading of domestic laws, regulations and administrative requirements as well as their implementation in practice as experienced by private firms. The report covers 190 economies—including some of the smallest and poorest economies, for which little or no data are available from other sources. The data are collected through several rounds of communication with expert respondents (both private sector practitioners and government officials), through responses to questionnaires, conference calls, written correspondence and visits by the team. Doing Business relies on four main sources of information: the relevant laws and regulations, Doing Business respondents, the governments of the economies covered and the World Bank Group regional staff.
Publisher
The World Bank
Origin
Western Sahara
Records
17
Source
Create chart Download showed records Download Full dataset
Territory of Norfolk Island | Bailiwick of Guernsey | Collectivity of Saint-Barthélemy | Åland Islands | Republic of Kosovo | Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha | Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China | Territory of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands | Wales | Bailiwick of Jersey | Territory of Christmas Island | Territory of the Wallis and Futuna Islands | Bouvet Island | Northern Ireland | United States Minor Outlying Islands | Principality of Monaco | Antarctica | Isle of Man | Republic of Namibia | British Indian Ocean Territory | Vatican City State | South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands | Saint Pierre and Miquelon | Republic of the Marshall Islands | Scotland | Svalbard and Jan Mayen | Territory of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands | Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands | Greenland | Department of Mayotte | England | Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands | Republic of Nauru | Falkland Islands | Tokelau | Western Sahara | Ease of shareholder suits index (0-10) (DB15-20 methodology)
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014 4
2015 4
2016 4
2017 4
2018 4
2019 4
2020 5
Territory of Norfolk Island | Bailiwick of Guernsey | Collectivity of Saint-Barthélemy | Åland Islands | Republic of Kosovo | Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha | Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China | Territory of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands | Wales | Bailiwick of Jersey | Territory of Christmas Island | Territory of the Wallis and Futuna Islands | Bouvet Island | Northern Ireland | United States Minor Outlying Islands | Principality of Monaco | Antarctica | Isle of Man | Republic of Namibia | British Indian Ocean Territory | Vatican City State | South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands | Saint Pierre and Miquelon | Republic of the Marshall Islands | Scotland | Svalbard and Jan Mayen | Territory of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands | Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands | Greenland | Department of Mayotte | England | Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands | Republic of Nauru | Falkland Islands | Tokelau | Western Sahara | Ease of shareholder suits index (0-10) (DB15-20 methodology)
The ease of shareholder suits index measures how likely plaintiffs are to access internal corporate evidence and recover legal expenses. It has six components: (i) whether shareholders owning 10% of the company’s share capital have the right to inspect the Buyer-Seller transaction documents before filing a suit. Alternatively, whether they can request that a government inspector investigate the Buyer-Seller transaction without filing a suit; (ii) what range of documents is available to the shareholder plaintiff from the defendant and witnesses during trial; (iii) whether the plaintiff can obtain cate­gories of relevant documents from the defendant without identifying each document specifically; (iv) whether the plaintiff can directly examine the defendant and witnesses during trial; (v) whether the standard of proof for civil suits is lower than that for criminal cases; and (vi) whether shareholder plaintiffs can recover their legal expenses from the company. The index is computed based on the methodology in the DB15-20 studies. Development relevance: Minority investors protection plays a crucial part in addressing many corporate governance issues. One of the most important problems in corporate governance is self-dealing—the use of corporate assets by company insiders for personal gain. Empirical research shows that stricter regulation of self-dealing is associated with greater equity investment and lower concentration of ownership. Corporate governance standards on board composition and independence, firm transparency and disclosure, and shareholders' rights relative to the board of directors and management can minimize the agency problem between majority and minority shareholders as well as that between minority shareholders and the board of directors and management. Limitations and exceptions: The Doing Business methodology has five limitations that should be considered when interpreting the data. First, for most economies the collected data refer to businesses in the largest business city and may not be representative of regulation in other parts of the economy. Second, the data often focus on a specific business form—generally a limited liability company (or its legal equivalent) of a specified size—and may not be representative of the regulation on other businesses. Third, transactions described in a standardized case scenario refer to a specific set of issues and may not represent the full set of issues that a business encounters. Fourth, the measures of time involve an element of judgment by the expert respondents. When sources indicate different estimates, the time indicators reported in Doing Business represent the median values of several responses given under the assumptions of the standardized case. Finally, the methodology assumes that a business has full information on what is required and does not waste time when completing procedures. In practice, completing a procedure may take longer if the business lacks information or is unable to follow up promptly. Alternatively, the business may choose to disregard some burdensome procedures. For both reasons the time delays reported in Doing Business would differ from the recollection of entrepreneurs reported in the World Bank Group Enterprise questionnaires or other firm-level questionnaires.. Statistical concept and methodology: Data are collected by the World Bank Group with a standardized questionnaire that uses a simple business case to ensure comparability across economies and over time—with assumptions about the legal form of the business, its size, its location and nature of its operation. Questionnaires are administered to more than 13,800 local experts, including lawyers, business consultants, accountants, freight forwarders, government officials and other professionals routinely administering or advising on legal and regulatory requirements. The Doing Business data are based on a detailed reading of domestic laws, regulations and administrative requirements as well as their implementation in practice as experienced by private firms. The report covers 190 economies—including some of the smallest and poorest economies, for which little or no data are available from other sources. The data are collected through several rounds of communication with expert respondents (both private sector practitioners and government officials), through responses to questionnaires, conference calls, written correspondence and visits by the team. Doing Business relies on four main sources of information: the relevant laws and regulations, Doing Business respondents, the governments of the economies covered and the World Bank Group regional staff.
Publisher
The World Bank
Origin
Western Sahara
Records
17
Source
Create chart Download showed records Download Full dataset