Why it is so important to keep analytics independent. What are the lessons of the scandal with the Doing Business Report?

Abstract

In September 2021, a wave of emotions arose in the professional community and among international financial institutions due to the facts of political influence on the results of the 2018 Doing Business Report, when it turned out that China's rating position was significantly overstated due to data manipulation. At the time, the analytical team that prepared the report was under significant pressure from the management of the World Bank, which owns the report, to find a technical solution to process the available data to obtain a higher position for China, which was important for the World Bank for geopolitical reasons. These events were analyzed by an investigation conducted by the law firm WilmerHale, which presented its findings in the report "Investigation of Data Irregularities in Doing Business 2018 and 2020", which became publicly available only due to the position of the new World Bank management.