Women's Economic Opportunity Index - Economist Intelligence Unit

Appendix IISources and definitionsWomen’s economic opportunityA new global index and ranking5) General business environmentIndicator Source Year Indicator definitions and constructionRegulatory qualityWorldwide GovernanceIndicators2008 Regulatory Quality measures the ability of the government to formulate and implement soundpolicies and regulations that permit and promote private-sector development. This is a generalindicator of the business environment and hence is not gender-disaggregated. If a country issuffering from disruptions to the business environment, economic opportunities for women, andmen, will be constrained.Starting a businessInfrastructure riskMobile cellular telephonesubscribersWorld Bank Group, DoingBusiness ProjectEconomist IntelligenceUnit, Risk BriefingInternationalTelecommunicationUnion2009 The time taken (duration) to start a business may affect women adversely due to their triple timeburden of work-household-children. The high minimum paid in capital and cost of setting up abusiness, may also affect women entrepreneurs disproportionately if they have limited accessto capital relative to men. This combines four of the World Bank’s Doing Business “Starting abusiness” measures—Procedures, Duration, Cost and Paid in minimum capital—into a singlecomposite indicator. This indicator identifies the bureaucratic and legal hurdles an entrepreneurmust overcome to incorporate and register a new firm. It examines the procedures, time and costinvolved in launching a commercial or industrial firm with up to 50 employees and start-up capitalof ten times the economy’s per-head gross national income (GNI).2009 This indicator assesses the risk that infrastructure deficiencies will cause a loss of income. Itconsiders the risk that port facilities, air transport, the retail and wholesale distribution networks,the telephone network, and the ground transport network will prove inadequate to business needs;the risk that power shortages will disrupt business activities; and that the information technologyinfrastructure will prove inadequate to business needs. This is a general indicator of the businessenvironment and hence is not gender-disaggregated. If a country is suffering from disruptions tothe business environment, economic opportunities for women, and men, will be constrained.2008 This is a proxy for connectivity, technological take-up and access to market information.Mobile cellular telephone subscribers per 100 inhabitants137 Economist Intelligence Unit 2010