| Code | PROT.MINOR.INV.EXT.BUS.DISC.010.XD |
| Indicator Name | Extent of disclosure index (0-10) |
| Long definition | The extent of disclosure index measures the approval and disclosure requirements of related-party transactions. It has five components: (i) whether it is the managing director alone, the board of directors, or the general meeting of shareholders the corporate body who can provide legally sufficient approval for the transaction (points are assigned depending on whether interested directors are permitted to vote or not); (ii) whether an external body (an independent auditor, for example) must review the transaction before it takes place; (iii) whether disclosure by Mr. James to the board of directors or the supervisory board is required; (iv) whether immediate disclosure of the transaction to the public, the regulator or the shareholders is required; and (v) whether disclosure in periodic filings (for example, annual reports) is required. |
| Source | World Bank Group, Doing Business project (http://www.doingbusiness.org/). |
| Topic | Protecting minority investors |
| Periodicity | Annual |
| Reference period | Data are presented for the survey year instead of publication year. |
| Statistical concept and methodology | Data are collected by the World Bank Group with a standardized questionnaire that uses a simple business case to ensure comparability across economies and over time—with assumptions about the legal form of the business, its size, its location and nature of its operation. Questionnaires are administered to more than 13,800 local experts, including lawyers, business consultants, accountants, freight forwarders, government officials and other professionals routinely administering or advising on legal and regulatory requirements.
The Doing Business data are based on a detailed reading of domestic laws, regulations and administrative requirements as well as their implementation in practice as experienced by private firms. The report covers 190 economies—including some of the smallest and poorest economies, for which little or no data are available from other sources. The data are collected through several rounds of communication with expert respondents (both private sector practitioners and government officials), through responses to questionnaires, conference calls, written correspondence and visits by the team. Doing Business relies on four main sources of information: the relevant laws and regulations, Doing Business respondents, the governments of the economies covered and the World Bank Group regional staff. |
| Development relevance | Minority investors protection plays a crucial part in addressing many corporate governance issues. One of the most important problems in corporate governance is self-dealing—the use of corporate assets by company insiders for personal gain. Empirical research shows that stricter regulation of self-dealing is associated with greater equity investment and lower concentration of ownership. Corporate governance standards on board composition and independence, firm transparency and disclosure, and shareholders' rights relative to the board of directors and management can minimize the agency problem between majority and minority shareholders as well as that between minority shareholders and the board of directors and management. |
| Limitations and exceptions | The Doing Business methodology has five limitations that should be considered when interpreting the data. First, for most economies the collected data refer to businesses in the largest business city and may not be representative of regulation in other parts of the economy. Second, the data often focus on a specific business form—generally a limited liability company (or its legal equivalent) of a specified size—and may not be representative of the regulation on other businesses. Third, transactions described in a standardized case scenario refer to a specific set of issues and may not represent the full set of issues that a business encounters. Fourth, the measures of time involve an element of judgment by the expert respondents. When sources indicate different estimates, the time indicators reported in Doing Business represent the median values of several responses given under the assumptions of the standardized case. Finally, the methodology assumes that a business has full information on what is required and does not waste time when completing procedures. In practice, completing a procedure may take longer if the business lacks information or is unable to follow up promptly. Alternatively, the business may choose to disregard some burdensome procedures. For both reasons the time delays reported in Doing Business would differ from the recollection of entrepreneurs reported in the World Bank Group Enterprise questionnaires or other firm-level questionnaires. |
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