The World Bank’s Doing Business Rankings: Relinquishing Sovereignty for a Good Grade
Launched in 2003, the World Bank’s annual Doing Business (DB) ranking system rates 189 countries on the “ease of doing business” within the country and pressures them to achieve higher rankings in subsequent reports by enacting neoliberal regulatory reforms. Despite its positive veneer, the report encourages governments to eliminate economic, social, and environmental safeguards and promotes competition among countries for higher rankings and, consequently, higher foreign direct investment. One impact of this benchmarking and deregulation has been large-scale land acquisition by foreign companies in the developing world.