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Last week, the World Bank Group announced its decision to end publication of the Doing Business report, its flagship annual publication that rates the business environment of countries around the world, after a probe concluded that senior World Bank management pressured staff to alter data affecting the rankings of China and other nations.
After data irregularities on the 2018 and 2020 editions of Doing Business were reported internally, World Bank management paused the report to conduct a series of reviews and audits into the report itself and its methodology. The controversy surrounding Doing Business first became public in 2018, when the World Bank’s then-chief economist, Paul Romer, told The Wall Street Journal that he had concerns about the report’s integrity. Shortly afterward, Romer resigned from his position at the Bank.