Simeon Djankov
Simeon Djankov is the chief economist for Finance and Private Sector in the World Bank group. He is best known as the creator of the Doing Business series. In his 13 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, Journal of Political Economy, American Economic Review, Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Economic Growth, Journal of Public Economics, and Journal of Comparative Economics. Simeon is an author of the Doing Business blog and the Crisis Talk blog.
Select research
Bankruptcy Regimes during Financial Distress, May 2009
Natural Resources and Reforms, with Mohammad Amin, March 2009
The Effect of Corporate Taxes on Investment and Entrepreneurship, with Tim Ganser, Caralee McLiesh, Rita Ramalho and Andrei Shleifer, March 2009
Increasing University Enrollment as Crisis Response, with Georgi Angelov, February 2009
Disclosure by Politicians, with Rafael La Porta, Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes and Andrei Shleifer, January 2009
Tax Stimulus as Crisis Response, with Georgi Angelov, January 2009
Democracy and Reforms, with Mohammad Amin, January 2009
When Will Stocks Rebound in Eastern Europe? with Facundo Martin, January 2009
On the Waterfront: An Empirical Study of Corruption in the Ports, with Sandra Sequeira, December 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
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
Resolution of Financial Distress: An International Perspective on the Design of Bankruptcy Laws (edited book), with Stijn Claessens and Ashoka Mody, May 2002
Stock Markets in Transition Economies, with Stijn Claessens and Daniela Klingebiel, Financial Sector Discussion Paper #5, September 2000
Published research
The Regulation of Entry: A Survey, World Bank Research Observer, May 2009Poverty and Civil War: Revisiting the Evidence, with Marta Reynal-Querol, Review of Economics and Statistics, forthcoming
Debt Enforcement Around the World, with Oliver Hart, Caralee McLiesh and Andrei Shleifer, Journal of Political Economy, December 2008
Aid with Multiple Personalities, with Jose Montalvo and Marta Reynal-Querol, Journal of Comparative Economics, forthcoming
The Curse of Aid, with Jose Montalvo and Marta Reynal-Querol, Journal of Economic Growth, June 2009
Employment Laws in Developing Countries, with Rita Ramalho, Journal of Comparative Economics, March 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
When does corporate diversification matter to productivity and performance? Evidence from East Asia, with Stijn Claessens, Joseph Fan and Larry Lang, Pacific Basin Finance Journal, 11 (3), pp. 365-392, September 2003
Resolution of corporate distress in East Asia, with Stijn Claessens and Leora Klapper, Journal of Empirical Finance, 10 (1-2), pp. 199-216, June 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 Enterprise Isolation Program in Romania, Journal of Comparative Economics, 27 (2), pp. 281-293, June 1999
The Restructuring of Insider-Dominated Firms: A Comparative Analysis, Economics of Transition, April 1999