Michael Kelly Mort Kondracke Ch. The authors find that the more obstacles that governments place before entrepreneurs, the more prevalent corruption and the bigger the grey markets in their national economies are likely to be. Lower start-up regulation, for its part, correlates with greater democracy and higher GDP per head, the latter being a crude measure of standard of living. Any number of other studies have, of course, looked at the trouble associated with bureaucratic red tape and too much government. They found a wide variety in both the number and kind of obstacles to start-ups.
Some countries impose numerous taxes, others make firms wait half a year before getting to work.
Canada comes out the best of the lot, with Australia, New Zealand, the US, Sweden and Ireland close behind. The bottom quartile contains some predictable names, including Brazil and Russia. Bolivia, with 20 procedures required, is the worst of the lot. But Mexico is also in the group, as is an apparently still dirigiste France. France comes in just below Vietnam, an embarrassment for the old Empire.