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04. Which Factors Matter the Most for Business Climate? Watch Video Connection Speed: High Speed Low Speed    Event Title : ABCDE 2007 Slovenia Date : 5/17/2007 Duration : 77 minutes Language  : English Country/Region : World Keyword :  Financial Sector  Private Sector Development  Policies Presenter : | Related Material | Recommendations |Related B-SPAN Videos |  DESCRIPTION  The Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics (ABCDE) brings together academics, policy makers, representatives of multilateral and bilateral agencies, research institutes, civil society organizations, students, and journalists, and thus provides an excellent opportunity to foster exchange of knowledge and understanding of development issues. ABCDE 2007 took place in Bled, Slovenia, and was co-organized by the World Bank and the Ministry of Finance of Slovenia. It gathered together over 400 participants over two days to discuss the theme of Development and the Private Sector. Paul Seabright, from the University of Toulouse began by defining business climate and then named three different sources of information that can be used in relation to business environment and its effects: cross-country econometric studies, surveys of business managers and case studies. The first source is best known as the literature on institutional determinants of growth, using a large sample of countries. Wendy Carlin, of University College London, talked about the second source in more detail: surveys of managers. These surveys provide information on the importance of each dimension for productivity, but have many limitations. Seabright finished by a discussion of the third source – case studies, which offer ample material for building hypotheses. Zoran Stavreski, Vice-president of Economic Affairs for Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, expressed his views on the paper by reflecting on measures that policymakers could adopt to improve the business climate, attract more investments and achieve stronger economic growth. Loh Wah Sing, Chief Executive Officer at the International Trade Institute of Singapore, presented the practical business climate perspective of ASEAN countries – a high growth area. Jan Svejnar, Director of Michigan University’s International Policy Center, critically commented on some of the messages of the paper, such as the link between productivity of firms and business environment constraints. The speaker discussed the complimentary nature of three approaches presented by the authors and pointed to a potential problem where results from two approaches differ. Svejnar concluded with a set of recommendations for further research: repeated studies and collecting more duration data.  RELATED MATERIALS   Related World Bank and Other Links: World Bank: ABCDE 2007 Slovenia Related B-SPAN Events: ABCDE 2006 Tokyo ABCDE 2006 St. Petersburg RELATED B-SPAN EVENTS Financial Sector (90) Private Sector Development (70) Policies (44)