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Today& #39;s decision by the World Bank to suspend the publication of the Doing Business is a definitely a major event in the history of global development policy, especially because the bank vehementely denied in the past its indicators are biased. THREAD 
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👇" title="Rückhand Zeigefinger nach unten" aria-label="Emoji: Rückhand Zeigefinger nach unten">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧵" title="Thread" aria-label="Emoji: Thread"> https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/statement/2020/08/27/doing-business---data-irregularities-statement">https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/s...
The Doing Business report measures and ranks countries& #39; institutions. It assigns each country a score, which is inteded to reflect the quality of its & #39;business environment& #39;. Many call it biased and partial. Here& #39;s my fave article on the DB: https://brill.com/view/journals/iolr/15/1/article-p168_168.xml?language=en">https://brill.com/view/jour...
In more than a decade, public criticism always came from outsiders. But in 2018 former WB& #39;s chief economist declared to the @WSJ that Chile& #39;s drop in 21 posititons in 2018 was politically motivated. Here& #39;s the story: https://www.wsj.com/articles/world-bank-unfairly-influenced-its-own-competitiveness-rankings-1515797620">https://www.wsj.com/articles/...
I narrate this story in my PhD thesis on the @NDB_int and the @AIIB_Official and how they compare to the WB. The two developing countries-led institutions have publicly rejected adopting rankings and institutional assessment tools.
https://www.aiib.org/en/news-events/asian-infrastructure-finance/index.html#:~:text=Home%20%2D%20Asian%20Infrastructure%20Finance%202019%20%7C%20AIIB%20report&text=Infrastructure%20projects%20focused%20on%20cross,Finance%20report%20developed%20by%20AIIB.">https://www.aiib.org/en/news-e...
https://www.aiib.org/en/news-events/asian-infrastructure-finance/index.html#:~:text=Home%20%2D%20Asian%20Infrastructure%20Finance%202019%20%7C%20AIIB%20report&text=Infrastructure%20projects%20focused%20on%20cross,Finance%20report%20developed%20by%20AIIB.">https://www.aiib.org/en/news-e...
Following this bombastic declaration by its own top economist, Paul Romer, the WB did then what it just did now: announced it would initiate an auditing and an external review process. Even the language now and then is very similar. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-13/chile-demands-answers-in-world-bank-business-ranking-controversy">https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...
After two weeks, Paul Romer resigned from its post (and later became a Nobel laureate https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🏆" title="Trophäe" aria-label="Emoji: Trophäe">). He issued a public apologies letter. https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/01/25/paul-romer-quits-after-an-embarrassing-row">https://www.economist.com/finance-a...
Then Chile& #39;s President, @michexpresident, issued a public statement condemning the impartiality of the Doing Business, noting that rankings may afect a country& #39;s investment inflow and its overall development. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-chile-worldbank/chile-slams-world-bank-for-bias-in-competitiveness-rankings-idUSKBN1F20SN">https://www.reuters.com/article/u...
Six months later, the externan reviewers issued a report concluding that there were no signs of & #39;political manipulation& #39;. They only criticized the multiples and succesive changes to the report& #39;s methodology. https://www.wsj.com/articles/world-bank-competitiveness-rankings-werent-manipulated-audit-shows-1531337868">https://www.wsj.com/articles/...
There is now mounting speculation and reports on why this case was & #39;case reopened& #39;. The same @WSJ has reported insiders& #39; information that data on countries like Saudi Arabia, China and the United Arab Emirates were inappropriately altered. https://www.wsj.com/articles/world-bank-delays-report-on-national-competitiveness-rankings-amid-concerns-of-data-manipulation-11598554654">https://www.wsj.com/articles/...
@charlesjkenny reminded that Saudi Arabia was named & #39;top reformer& #39; in 2019: https://twitter.com/charlesjkenny/status/1299062847503298560?s=20">https://twitter.com/charlesjk...
The new WB& #39;s move comes only two years after it issued a bold statement denying any chance of undue interference with the DB methodology: "Objective data is not subject to political influence", it said in 2018 after Romer& #39;s declarations. https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/statement/2018/01/13/world-bank-group-statement-on-doing-business-index">https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/s...
Will be interesting to watch next steps (and also next stories about & #39;why& #39; and & #39;who& #39; provoked this internally). But one thing is certain: if institutional reform is still to be a key element of mainstream global development agenda, good answers will need to be provided. /End.
Might be of interest @andreroncaglia @pedrolrossi @Joao_P_Romero @CriticalDev @lauraabcarvalho @bollemdb
