Development Economics Global Indicators Group

Global Indicators Group

The Global Indicators Group (DECIG) produces primary data and analysis on private sector development - the key to sustainable and inclusive economic growth. The indicators place emphasis on regulations, institutions, and policies that promote job creation, economic productivity, and gender equality.

DECIG publishes the World Bank's flagship reports on global business environment and women's economic empowerment. It also conducts the world's most comprehensive enterprise surveys and studies of the subnational business environment.

Through rigorous firm surveys and expert consultations, DECIG generates reliable data and indicators that are relevant to policymaking, and comparable within and across developing and developed economies.

DECIG's data, reports, and papers encourage and guide legal and economic reforms, open the door for policy dialogue and knowledge sharing, and feed into development research.

DECIG is located within the Development Economics Vice Presidency of the World Bank.

DIRECTOR

Norman Loayza
Director, Global Indicators Group

What does the private sector need to thrive?

The private sector, including firms, workers and markets, is the engine for economic growth. An economy cannot expand without it.
A vibrant private sector depends on a healthy regulatory environment, including efficient public services, streamlined regulations, and equitable laws that balance opportunities for all.
Many countries need reforms to improve their regulatory framework to support the private sector.
The Global Indicators Group provides reliable evidence and global datasets to support reforms.
Together, the DECIG programs power evidence-informed policymaking for a stronger private sector everywhere in the world...
...and accelerate the World Bank��s effort to end poverty on a livable planet.

Highlights

Sign up for our event

Improving upon the Doing Business report, B-READY offers more comprehensive data and analysis that can guide policy reforms and foster private sector development that benefit firms, workers, markets, and society as a whole. Join economists, policymakers, business leaders and journalists to explore barriers to long-term growth, good policy practices, and strategies for fostering a business-ready environment.

Enterprise Surveys event_World Bank_Private sector development

Watch replay

Knowledge sharing: What's Holding Back the Private Sector? Understanding the Business Experience through Enterprise Surveys

Hear from prominent academics and practitioners about experiences of the private sector, new opportunities in the measurement of the business environment, and policy implications obtained from Enterprise Surveys data findings.

Our Programs

Business Ready (B-READY)

Business Ready?is the World Bank��s new flagship report benchmarking the business environment and investment climate in most economies worldwide.?

Enterprise Surveys provide the world's most comprehensive comparable firm-level data in emerging markets and developing economies.

Subnational Business Ready (SN)

Subnational Business Ready assesses the business environment for private sector development across locations in a single country. The program provides data on selected topics for each location, and inform the policy agenda of local policymakers.?

The Women, Business and the Law (WBL) project collects data on the laws and regulations that affect women��s economic opportunity.?

Private sector to end poverty on a livable planet

The private sector needs a favorable business environment to grow and prosper. Hear from experts from the Global Indicators Group:

DECIG Seminar Series

Livestreamed every month, the series invites leading researchers in development economics and public policy to present their recent work on international development, especially on private sector development.

Global Indicators Briefs Series

Summarizing key findings from research and data analysis conducted by DECIG experts on private sector development.

New and Featured

Blog

The Global Economic Prospects forecasts that 2023 will see the lowest growth rate in three decades, with the exceptions of 2009 (the global financial crisis) and 2020 (the COVID-19 pandemic). Moreover, the recently ...
Blog

This blog explores the intricate relationship between demographics and labor supply, examining current trends, implications, and policy considerations for economies worldwide.
Data viz

Dive into the World Bank Enterprise Surveys, featuring data from 29,000 firms in 50 economies.
Presentation slides

Does digitalization have a role to play in encouraging businesses to formalize? ...

Data viz

The inequalities faced by women in Sub-Saharan Africa span various domains: education, economic participation, healthcare, and societal norms. Get the data
Blog

The Informal Sector Enterprise Surveys (ISES), which uses the Adaptive Cluster Sampling (ACS), provides a solution to studying the grey economy �� namely to generate data on informal businesses and help researchers and ...
Data

The Enterprise Surveys team has released new survey data for Barbados, Cambodia, Chad, Costa Rica, The Gambia, Hong Kong SAR China, Kyrgyz Republic, Lesotho, Seychelles, Singapore, Tanzania, and Viet Nam.
Blog

Buildings account for 37% of energy-related emissions globally, driven by burgeoning growth in built-up floor area. The world adds the equivalent of a new Paris every five days �� that is 6 billion sq meters of new floor ...