Simeon Djankov

Simeon Djankov, Manager, Doing Business Database, World Bank Group Simeon Djankov is the creator of the Doing Business series. In his dozen years at the World Bank, he has worked on regional trade agreements in North Africa, enterprise restructuring and privatization in transition economies, corporate governance in East Asia, and regulatory reforms around the world. Simeon was a principal author of the World Development Report 2002. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and has published over 70 articles in academic journals, including in Quarterly Journal of Economics, American Economic Review, Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Public Economics, and Journal of Comparative Economics.

Select research

The Regulation of Labor in Developing Countries, with Rita Ramalho, Aug 2008

Debt Enforcement Around the World, with Oliver Hart, Caralee McLiesh and Andrei Shleifer, Aug 2008

Poverty and Civil War: Revisiting the Evidence, with Marta Reynal-Querol, July 2008

The Regulation of Entry: A Survey, July 2008

Mexico: Who are the unbanked? with Pedro Miranda, Enrique Seira and Siddharth Sharma, June 2008

What makes an entrepreneur? with Yingyi Qian, Gérard Roland and Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, January 2008

The Effect of Corporate Taxes on Investment and Entrepreneurship (draft paper), with Tim Ganser, Caralee McLiesh, Rita Ramalho, Andrei Shleifer, January 2008

Measuring the Ease of Enterprise (draft), December 2007

The Causes of Civil War, with Marta Reynal-Querol, May 2007

Review of the Dutch Administration Burden Reduction Programme, with Peter Ladegaard and Caralee McLiesh, February 2007

Aid with Multiple Personalities, with Jose Montalvo and Marta Reynal-Querol, December 2006

Published research

The Curse of Aid, with Jose Montalvo and Marta Reynal-Querol, Journal of Economic Growth, June 2009

Trading on Time, with Caroline Freund and Cong Pham, Review of Economics and Statistics, November 2008

The Law and Economics of Self-Dealing, with Rafael La Porta, Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes and Andrei Shleifer, Journal of Financial Economics, June 2008

Obtaining a Driving License in India: An Experimental Approach to Studying Corruption? with Marianne Bertrand, Rema Hanna, and Sendhil Mullainathan, Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 2007

Private Credit in 129 Countries, with Caralee McLiesh and Andrei Shleifer, Journal of Financial Economics, May 2007

Regulation and Growth, with Caralee McLiesh and Rita Ramalho, Economics Letters, September 2006

Does Foreign Aid Help? with Jose G. Montalvo, and Marta Reynal-Querol, Cato Journal, Winter 2006

Who are China's Entrepreneurs? with Yingyi Qian, Gérard Roland, and Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, May 2006

Entrepreneurship in China and Russia Compared, with Yingyi Qian, Gerard Roland and Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, Journal of the European Economic Association, May 2006

Corporate Valuation and the Resolution of Bank Insolvency in East Asia, with Jan Jindra and Leora Klapper, Journal of Banking and Finance, September 2005

Who are Russia's Entrepreneurs? with Edward Miguel, Yingyi Qian, Gerard Roland, and Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, Journal of the European Economic Association, May 2005 

The Regulation of Labor, with Juan Botero, Rafael La Porta, Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes, and Andrei Shleifer, Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 2004

The New Comparative Economics, with Edward Glaeser, Rafael La Porta, Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes, and Andrei Shleifer, Journal of Comparative Economics, December 2003

Who Owns the Media? with Caralee McLiesh, Tatiana Nenova, and Andrei Shleifer, Journal of Law and Economics, October 2003

Courts, with Rafael La Porta, Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes, and Andrei Shleifer, Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 2003

Disentangling the Incentive and Entrenchment Effects of Large Shareholdings, with Stijn Claessens, Joseph Fan, and Larry Lang, Journal of Finance, December 2002

Enterprise Restructuring in Transition: A Quantitative Survey, with Peter Murrell, Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. XL, pp 739–792, September 2002

New Borders: Evidence from the Former Soviet Union, with Caroline Freund, Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv, September 2002

Privatization Benefits in Eastern Europe, with Stijn Claessens, Journal of Public Economics, March 2002

Trade Flows in the Former Soviet Union, 1987-1996, with Caroline Freund, Journal of Comparative Economics, March 2002

The Regulation of Entry, with Rafael La Porta, Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes, and Andrei Shleifer, Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 2002

Hardened Budget Constraints and Enterprise Restructuring: Theory and an Application to Romania, with Fabrizio Coricelli, Journal of Comparative Economics, December 2001

The Separation of Ownership and Control in East Asian Corporations, with Stijn Claessens and Larry Lang, Journal of Financial Economics, November 2000

Competition Law in Post-central Planning Bulgaria, with Bernard Hoekman, The Antitrust Bulletin, pp. 227-248, Spring 2000

Foreign Investment and Productivity Growth in Czech Enterprises, with Bernard Hoekman, World Bank Economic Review, 14, March 2000

The Restructuring of Insider-Dominated Firms: A Comparative Analysis, Economics of Transition, April 1999