« Quote: Rudolf Hess and the Marx Brothers | Main | Matt Drudge: Mad Dog Blogger »
Latest Stories
- Excel Wankers and Recession Averages
- Sorry, New York is Closed. Check Back Later.
- Catching Falling 2009 Earnings Estimate Knife
- Survivorship Bias in Global Markets
- Talking Positions on a Lazy-ish Retirement Portfolio
November 21, 2007
You Can Startup Any Time You Like, etc.
The following data from a recent World Bank report caught my eye. From a larger study, I compare the the rankings of the top ten countries for ease of starting companies with the ease of closing companies in the same places.
| Country | Starting | Closing |
| Australia | 1 | 14 |
| Canada | 2 | 4 |
| New Zealand | 3 | 16 |
| United States | 4 | 18 |
| Ireland | 5 | 6 |
| United Kingdom | 6 | 10 |
| Puerto Rico | 7 | 28 |
| Mauritius | 8 | 66 |
| Singapore | 9 | 2 |
| Georgia | 10 | 105 |
Apparently, in some countries (to adapt The Eagles) you can startup any time you like, but you can never leave.
Sphere It
| 
Digg it
| 
Bookmark it
| 
Stumble it
| 
Facebook it
I work as a Peace Corps volunteer in Georgia, consulting to small business here. It's absolutely amazing how much work they've put into changing business start-up laws, and how little they've put into business termination law. There's a reason that Georgia is listed as #105... There are literally thousands of entities that are no longer functional but still 'exist' nominally as the cost of termination outweighs the practicality of closing.
For a bit of fun I've popped the data into Many Eyes for a touch of visualization.
http://services.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/view/S5kPCKsOtha6Y7l8Y7gMK2-