Doing Business in the European Union 2020

Doing Business was the first global indicator created to measure aspects of regulation that enable or hinder the owners of small and medium-size businesses in starting, operating or expanding their companies. In its annual publication, each economy is represented by its largest business city and compared globally with another one hundred and eighty-seven economies. Doing Business in the European Union 2020 Italy benchmark twenty-four additional cities, capturing regional differences in regulations and their enforcement. This report focuses on the rules and regulations that govern business activity across Italy, as well as on the efficacy of the bureaucracy at local level. This layer of administration is especially important in a country like Italy, where local authorities play a crucial role in determining how national regulations are implemented. Cities’ variations in regulatory performance on the five Doing Business indicators studied in this report highlight an opportunity for local policymakers to adopt in-country examples of good practices to improve regulatory performance in their jurisdictions.