Stock Picks From The Best Overseas Biz Climes

WASHINGTON, D.C. – For the past several years, we’ve used data from the International Finance Corp., the private sector arm of the World Bank, as a starting point for an international stock search. We’ve had moderate success with the approach, so we’re giving it another go.

The data in question comes from the IFC’s annual “Doing Business” study, which measures how easy it is to do business in a particular country. Namely, the survey quantifies the time and costs involved in starting a business, dealing with licenses, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and closing a business.

This morning, the IFC releases “Doing Business in 2007: How to Reform,” which ranks 175 countries in those categories. The survey, for which the IFC surveyed 5,000 local experts, is a treasure trove of information for Beltway wonks, especially those interested in how red tape affects developing economies.

Full story at Forbes.com