BOFIT Viikkokatsaus / BOFIT Weekly Review 2015/44
Especially in Russia’s case, Doing Business seems to mainly reflect formal business regulation, where e.g. legislation has improved visibly over the past decade. In practice, however, companies often experience the Russian business environment very differently. Numerous surveys in recent years have noted that the main problems encountered in Russia largely have to do with capricious application of the law and the costs of corruption – factors overlooked in the Doing Business indicators. In addition, Doing Business indicators are based on very narrowly specified case studies which cannot necessarily be generalised to the overall business environment, even if it eases comparison across countries.