Business Environment and Enterprise
Performance Survey (BEEPS):
Data and New Products
PREM LEARNING WEEK 2010
Presented by:
APRIL 29
Gregory Kisunko, Sr. Public Sector Specialist, ECSPE
Kimberly Johns, Consultant ESCPE
Agenda
 What is BEEPS?
 History, Methodology and Sample
 Country and Topical Coverage
 Types of Indicators
 Quantitative and Qualitative Data
 Advantages of BEEPS Data
 Opportunities for Using BEEPS
 BEEPS in Use: Research and Practice
 New Opportunities
 BEEPS Products:
Overview and Demonstration of BEEPS Portal
What is BEEPS?
 Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey:
A joint initiative of the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development and the World Bank
 BEEPS is a unique dataset of firm-level survey data
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The BEEPS has been carried out in 1999, 2002, 2005, and 2008 in virtually
all of the countries of ECA region
Over 9,000 firms in 27 ECA countries were surveyed in 2005, and over
10,500 in 29 countries in the 2008 cycle.
BEEPS includes a panel aspect with data dating back to 2002.
 A primary goal of BEEPS is to capture indicators of the business
environment and firm-state interaction (e.g. characteristics of
financing, red tape, corruption, innovation, judiciary, etc.)
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What is BEEPS?
 The results are based on firm responses, therefore
better reflect “on the ground” experiences.
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Results are not based on expert opinion or legislative procedures
Use BEEPS to monitor progress on programs and reforms
Use BEEPS to identify trends and opportunities for Bank
involvement
BEEPS data complements other data sources (DB, WDI, LiTS, etc.)
 With the BEEPS Portal, if it is in BEEPS, it is now at your
fingertips.
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Charts and data can be used in reports, presentations,
discussions, and original research
Sample & Methodology
Transport
5%
 BEEPS uses a stratified sample of firms
chosen on the basis of age, primary
area of activity, size, and location
 The sampling frame and methodology
changed between 2005 and 2008
cycles, and
 While steps have been taken to match
the 2005 and 2008 sample frames as
closely as possible, all cross-period
comparisons should be considered
illustrative
Other Svc
3%
Construction
9%
Hotels/
Restaurants
3%
Manufacturing
47%
Wholesale
and Retail
33%
While cross-period comparability is limited, “new” BEEPS allows for
greater comparability of ECA countries with countries in other regions.
BEEPS Topical Coverage
 BEEPS captures data on a number of aspects of the business
environment:
• Competition
• Corruption
• Costs of Doing Business
• Crime
• Customs and Trade
• Finance and Credit Use
• Infrastructure
• Innovation and IT Use
• Inspections and Permits
• Labor & Workforce
Development
• Land and Zoning
• Legal and Judicial Issues
• Performance
• Problems Doing Business
• Regulations & Red Tape
• Sales and Supplies
• Taxation
 Questions are asked in face-to-face interviews with top managers of
the individual firms.
Types of Information Gathered:
In-Practice Indicators
Quantitative Data
Perceptual Data
 Working days spent on:
 Problems doing business
Taxes, permits, inspections, etc.
Number of permits and compulsory
certificates
Costs and days to obtain permits and
certificates
Total value of imports
Number and length of power outages
Losses due to crime
Informal payments as a percentage of
sales
Annual sales, sales on credit
Value of collateral
Number of competitors
Cost of labor, telecommunications, fuel,
etc.
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Tax rates, corruption, tax
administration, crime, skills and
education of labor, business
permits, etc.
Greatest obstacle currently facing
the firm
 Perceptions of courts
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Quick, Fair, Able to enforce
decisions
 Frequency of informal payments
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Taxes, Customs, Courts
Advantages and Disadvantages
 Data reflects actual experiences and firm sentiment. Results are not based
on expert opinion for a “typical” firm.
 Can be compared to other sources to develop a more detailed picture of
the business environment, e.g. Doing Business, AGI, and others.
 Can be used for program and policy reform monitoring, e.g. have
perceptions of corruption improved in countries
where reforms have taken place?
 Can help identify areas in need
of reform.
 Can be used for cross-country
and sub-regional comparison:
“How does Kosovo relate to
other SEE countries?”
Disadvantages:
• Changes in survey limit comparability
• Microfirms, firms in rural areas, and
firms in certain sectors excluded
• Some questions lack specificity, e.g.
transport as a problem doing business
BEEPS In Use: Research and Practice
Presentations, Reports and Policy/Country Dialogues
Country, Regional and Sub-regional Studies
Monitoring Reports and Operational Documents
Reports
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BEEPS at a Glance Country Profiles & Cross
Country Report
Regional/Sub-regional studies
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ACT series, Flagship Reports such as Turmoil at
20
EU8 Quarterly Economic Report
Forthcoming Reports: ECA Before the Storm
WBG Governance and Anti-corruption
strategy
Global Monitoring Report
World Development Report
Reference and Other Uses
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Corporate needs (CPIA)
CEMs, CVSs, policy notes
PADs, CPS/CAS
Sector studies and presentations
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For many research papers
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Finance, Judiciary, Innovation
On gender, finance, access to credit, et al. For more
information see also:
http://www.enterprisesurveys.org/documents/Res
earch-used-in-different-studies.xls
BEEPS Data Portal
Cross-Region Comparisons:
New Opportunities with BEEPS 2008
 The new questionnaire is very similar to the
Enterprise Survey, therefore many BEEPS
questions are now comparable to those
asked in LAC, SAR, and MENA.
 This offers the opportunity to see how ECA
compares to the rest of the world.
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How does Russia compare to Brazil, or the Slovak
Republic to Chile?
 The samples in most countries are larger
than past rounds, allowing for greater use
of the data for country-specific analysis.
 The BEEPS Portal allows for cross-
region/country comparisons
Finding the Data
BEEPS at-a-Glance Country Profiles
& Cross-Country Report
– BEEPS at-a-Glance is dedicated to questions that are
at least partially comparable across periods (20052008).
– The Cross-Country Report provides cross country,
regional and sub-regional comparisons of selected
indicators and an in-depth analysis of Problems
Doing Business
– Both can be found at:
http://go.worldbank.org/RQQXYJ6210
BEEPS Portal
– Tools for data analysis & dynamic reports
– Download datasets, survey instruments, and
notes
BEEPS PORTAL: Data at your Fingertips
 The Portal provides options to examine every indicator in the
BEEPS survey from 2005 and 2008
 Create customizable tables and
charts for indicators and countries
you select
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Line, pie, bar, column, radar charts
 Download tables and charts in
multiple formats (word, pdf, excel)
for greater ease of use
 View Customizable Reports
 Full report templates available for dynamic BEEPS At-a-Glance, Governance,
Corruption, Judiciary and Infrastructure
 Choose your country, comparator countries, and sub-regions
BEEPS PORTAL: Options for Analysis
 The Graphical Analysis option allows users to choose indicators and view values
across the ECA region, sub-region, or by country.
• The Data Analysis option allows users to dynamically analyze the data by
country, by indicator, by sub-region, and can view the results in a table or create
charts and graphs for use in reports or presentations.
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Users can refine their results by filtering on a number of strata, including firm size,
age, and sector.
• The Standardized Reports option allows users to examine data via pre-defined
reports that are created dynamically based on user preferences.
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The standardized report templates include important methodological notes, means
of calculation, and some include sample sizes for specific indicators.
Results obtained through any of the data analysis methods can be downloaded
by users for further analysis and/or presentations.
BEEPS PORTAL: Data Differences
 Other portals with similar
data exist, but are not as
robust as the BEEPS Data
Portal.
 The portal most similar to the
BEEPS Portal is that of
Enterprise Surveys
 Enterprise Surveys portal
houses data on many
indicators included on BEEPS,
but does not offer tools to
analyze BEEPS-specific
indicators
Selection of BEEPS-Specific Indicators
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 The BEEPS Portal also has
more options for data
visualization and
customization.
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Informal payments to deal with customs,
courts, taxes
Developing new products, outsourcing,
spending on R&D
Receipt of subsidies
Number and cost of inspections, permits,
and compulsory certificates
Court use and perceptions of speed and
ability to enforce decisions
Working days spent on taxes,
inspections, permits, and compulsory
certificates
Professionalism of labor
HR related indicators, e.g. promotions
within the firm
Overdue payments
Comparison of Portals
BEEPS Data Portal
Enterprise Surveys
Three Charts Available:
10 Top Business Constraints
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Compare income group average & regional average
Charts and Tables can be created using any indicator
from 2005 or 2008
Tables show values for selected countries and year
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Multi-Country Comparison
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Selected indicators filed under 12 topics
Can only compare 2 countries
Can compare only to countries in specific regions or
income groups
Aggregate values for problems doing business
Strata Breakdown of Indicators
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Firm size, sector, exporter, ownership
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Graphs are customizable by type and style
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Change axis and data labels, add and modify legends, titles,
colors, line and column width, transparency, fills, and more
Data can be filtered by strata
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Graphs can be customized by country
but not in appearance
Choose indicators, countries, time, sub-regional and regional
averages
Rotate and highlight data
Sum function aggregates responses
Sector OR Industry: textiles, food, IT, chemicals, metals,
construction, electronics, retail, etc.
Firm size, subsidiary, ISO certification and age
Graphs and Tables are customizable by data,
appearance, are printable and can be downloaded for
use in presentations, reports and papers in multiple
formats
Dynamic Reports:
All the Values, All in One Place
 Topical Reports with at-a glance
summaries of relevant indicators (charts
and values)
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BEEPS at a Glance
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Customize countries and
strata options
Topical Reports with Indicators on
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Corruption
Governance
Judicial Issues
Infrastructure
 Customize countries and comparators
All reports are downloadable for use
in presentations and reports
For More Information
 To test-drive the BEEPS Portal, go to: http://beeps.prognoz.com
Enter Login Information:
Username: beeps
Password: vbnm7890
Note: The BEEPS Portal is still in testing mode, please do not quote
until the official release.
 BEEPS at-a-Glance and the Cross Country Report can be found at:
http://go.worldbank.org/RQQXYJ6210
 For more information on BEEPS, please contact Gregory Kisunko at
gkisunko@worldbank.org or Kimberly Johns at kjohns1@worldbank.org