Research Guides: International Business: Doing Business

Business Environment

Country Commerce Reports - Export.gov
Market conditions, opportunities, regulations, and business customs for over 125 countries prepared by trade and industry experts at U.S. embassies worldwide.
LexMundi's Guides to Doing Business
The Guides to Doing Business are prepared by Lex Mundi's member firms and provide a comprehensive overview of the legal and business environments in more than 100 jurisdictions worldwide. They can serve as a useful resource tool when planning an international business strategy or researching a new business market.

EIU Viewpoint This link opens in a new window
EIU Viewpoint includes forecasts for the global economy, daily insights, economic and political analysis, economic projections, industry analysis and data, commodity forecasts, macroeconomic datasets and proprietary ratings and rankings.

ATKearney’s Global Cities Index
The Global Cities Index is a comprehensive ranking of the leading global cities from around the world. It is designed to track the way cities develop as their populations grow and the world continues to shrink. This site is also home to the Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index
Transparency International
Works to expose and make transparent corruption in international business practices. Publishes the Corruption Perceptions Index, Bribe Payers Index, and Global Corruption Barometer along with other reports assessing the scope and nature of corruption.

Economic Indexes

Indexes published by think tanks and NGOs can help measure the business-friendliness of a country based on cultural, political, and economic markers. Index results are based on each organization's view of "good," so make sure you understand their agenda & values when using their data.

The Legatum Prosperity Index
The Prosperity Index, published by the Legatum Institute in London, measures global prosperity based on the population's wellbeing as well as traditional income markers.
Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom
See annually-produced list of countries organized alphabetically or by level of economic freedom based on 10 different markers.
Economic Freedom of the World Project
The Economic Freedom of the World uses 42 metrics to anylyze 141 countries. The report is produced annually by the Fraser Institute of Canada.

Risk & Ratings

CoFace Country Risk Assessments
160 country evaluations, drawn up on the basis of macroeconomic, financial and political data, are made freely available. Regularly updated, they provide an estimate of the average credit risk on a country’s businesses.
Competitive Alternatives
Competitive Alternatives is a biennial KPMG study that compares business costs and other competitiveness factors in more than 100 cities, in 10 countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States.