The study and prioritization of effective factors on improving the business environment in Mena countries

Introduction
Improving the business environment has always been one of the main goals of the prevailing economic regimes in the countries, and ways to achieve this goal are a challenge for policy-makers. In this research, efforts have been made to examine the factors affecting the improvement of the business environment based on the Ease of doing business of the World Bank and the importance of these factors in the order of priority to be identified. The present study was conducted with panel data of 17 countries in the MENA region during the period 2010-2015. In this study, a regression model has been used that examines the impact of each of the under-indicators of the business environment on improving the business environment. Considering the results, the resolving insolvency has the greatest impact on the improvement of the business environment, and subsequently the enforcing contracts and dealing with construction permits will rank next.
 
Literature and the theoretical background
Encouraging investment and entrepreneurship is one of the main pillars of creating people-centered growth in society. Investing and entrepreneurship in a country depend on creating a favorable business environment. Because a number of factors affecting the performance of enterprises are beyond the control of investors and economic activists, which is known in the literature as the business environment. Considering that the conditions of the business environment of each country are one of the main factors affecting the decision making of investors, the attention of economists and policymakers to improving the business environment and investment has increased significantly in recent years. So that the business environment keyword in the management and macroeconomics literature has won a special place. Even in the strategic management literature, Porter has focused on the competitiveness of firms in the competitiveness of nations and the role of government laws and policymakers in this area (Porter, 1990). Today, the creation of a platform for the competitiveness of the private sector and economic enterprises is one of the key roles and responsibilities of the governments (Osborne & Gaebler, 1992). The impact of the favorable business environment, the increase in the attraction of domestic and foreign investment, employment creation and GDP growth are not overlooked and even though our country has been ranked among the countries in favor of the business environment for many years, unfortunately, it has not been able to rank well among countries. These conditions have now made the business environment improving, given the challenges facing the country's economy, an indispensable necessity for the country. However, it seems that there is not suitable environment to create the right environment for investment and business in our country. In order to achieve the true position of the Iranian economy in the area of the business environment index, which is as a way to the development of the route, important steps should be taken (Bakhtiari & Shayesteh, 1391). In this paper, we have tried to identify the most important factors affecting the business environment in the ease of doing business by using the econometric methods and the World Bank data. In other words, the authors have sought to answer this question, which are the most important factors affecting the improvement of the business environment in the countries under study?
 
Methods
The research community in this study is developing countries. Given the existing constraints and research objectives, a sample of countries should be selected as a sample to study in these countries. Therefore, some of the developing countries with the title "MENA countries" were selected as the case study for the present study. The names of these countries are given in Table (1). The information needed for this study has been gathered using secondary data, mainly from the World Bank resources and the official ease of doing business index. In order to analyze the data in this study, the regression method of panel data and stata software constructed by the Stato Clap Company has been used. In this study, a regression model was used to examine the effect of each of the following indicators of the business environment on improving the business environment.
 
Table 1. Research sample (MENA countries)





Row


Country Name


Row


 


Row


Country Name






1


Algeria


7


Tunisia


13


Morocco




2


Bahrain


8


United Arab Emirates


14


Oman




3


Jibouti


9


The West Bank and Gaza Strip


15


Diameter




4


Egypt


10


Iraq


16


Saudi Arabia




5


Iran


11


Jordan


17


Syria




6


Lebanon


12


Kuwait


18


Qatar





 
 
To analyze the data in the present study, five steps are taken as follows:
A)      The first step is the Lyme test
B)      Step two is Hunsman Test
C)      Step three is examination of the lack of self-correlation
D)      Step four is test of variance of heterogeneity
E)      Step five is final Estimate of Model
 
Findings and discussion
Table 1 shows the results of the model's final estimation in MENA countries. Since the probability values of  (0.000) are smaller than 0.05. Therefore, the significance of the whole model is verified. The z values and the resulting probabilities for the model explanatory variables indicate that all the explanatory variables used in the model are statistically significant and have a positive sign. This indicates their positive impact on their dependent variable, which is also consistent with theoretical foundations. The higher the explanatory variable coefficient, the greater its significance, and vice versa, the lower the coefficient of the explanatory variable, indicates the greater attention to that variable in economic policy.
 
 
Table 1. Results obtained from the final estimation of the model





Variable


Coefficient


Standard deviation


The statistics Z


Probability






C (Width from source(


-1/35


0/853


-1/59


0/112




start


0/0975


0.014


6/83


0/000




dealing


0/111


0/006


16/87


0/000




enforce


0/113


0/008


12/87


0/000




credit


0/108


0/005


20/84


0/000




elec


0/106


0/006


17/69


0/000




tax


0/1092


0/006


17/34


0/000




protect


0/1090


0/006


17/14


0/000




regist


0/077


0/007


10/13


0/000




trading


0/084


0/004


18/38


0/000




resolving


0/117


0/005


22/17


0/000




Prob>  = 0/000




(10)=  27030/54





 
Conclusion
According to the estimated results, all parameters have the expected symbol and their mark corresponds to the theoretical expectation. In the model, all indicators have a positive effect on the ease of doing business environment, and each of them increases the total score of these countries in the index of business environment. According to the results, the payback component has the greatest impact on the improvement of the business environment, and then the implementation of the contracts and terms of obtaining the license of the next level will be influenced by the impact.