The World Bank has since 2002 documented bureaucratic¹ barriers to business around the world from licensing² requirements to predatory tax regimes.

自2002年以来世界银行(World Bank)记录了全球种种官僚商业壁垒，比如许可证要求和掠夺性税收制度。

But in its latest Doing Business report, the bank offers what for many countries — and half their population — is an important question: why is it so much harder for women to do business than men?

但在世行最新《营商环境报告》(Doing Business)中，该行提出了一个对许多国家——以及它们的半数国民——而言重要的问题：为什么女人做生意比男人难得多？

For the first time, economists⁴ at the World Bank this year sought to measure the regulatory environment for female entrepreneurs in starting a business, property rights and enforcing contracts.

世行经济学家今年首次尝试衡量女性创业者在开办企业、财产权和执行合同方面面临的监管环境。

Those findings were used as part of the ranking of the 190 countries covered by the report.

衡量结果被用作《2017年营商环境报告》所覆盖190个国家的部分排名依据。

In 155 economies women do not have the same legal rights as men, much less the supporting environment that is vital to promote entrepreneurship, said Paul Romer, the World Bank’s new chief economist³.

世行新任首席经济学家保罗.罗默(Paul Romer)表示：在155个经济体里女性不具有与男子相同的法律权利，更不用说对促进创业至关重要的支持环境。

The growing consensus⁵ among economists and policymakers is those sorts of obstacles matter economically.

经济学家和政策制定者越来越达成共识，认为这些障碍对经济有很大影响。

According to the World Bank, about a third of small and medium-size enterprises in emerging markets have at least one female owner.

据世行报告，新兴市场约三分之一的中小企业至少拥有一位女所有者，

But their average growth rate is significantly lower than male-owned businesses because they lack ready access to credit and face other forms of discrimination.

但这些企业的平均增长率明显低于男性所有的企业，因为它们难以获得信贷，且面临其他形式歧视。

In the Middle East and north Africa the gender⁶ gap in entrepreneurship results in an income loss of almost 30 per cent, according to the bank, with even Europe seeing a 10 per cent loss in income.

根据世行研究，创业的这种性别差距在中东和北非造成近30%的收入损失，就连欧洲也因此有10%的收入损失。

The bank’s researchers found 23 economies where women faced a different process to set up a limited liability company, 16 where women did not have the same property rights as men and 17 where if a woman did not have the same legal standing⁷ as a man in court.

世行研究人员发现有23个经济体的女性在成立有限责任公司时会面临不同程序，有16个经济体的女性不具备与男性同样的财产权，有17个经济体的女性在法庭上不享有与男性同等的法律地位。

They found the most restrictive laws in the Middle East and Africa.

他们发现，中东和非洲实施的法律最具限制性。

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, married women need their husband’s permission to set up a business.

例如，在刚果民主共和国，已婚女性需要丈夫许可才能创业。

In Benin, women need to present a marriage certificate to get the identification documents needed to eventually register a business.

在贝宁，女性需要提供结婚证明才能获得最终注册企业所需的身份证件。

The World Bank also collected data on whether countries had requirements for women to serve on corporate⁸ boards and found nine economies where that was the case including France, Germany, Italy, Norway and India.

世行还收集了要求公司董事会有女性任职的国家的数据，发现包括法国、德国、意大利、挪威、印度在内的9个经济体有此类要求。

But the bank decided⁹ not to include laws requiring female board members as part of its scoring because the evidence on the value of such laws remains¹⁰ mixed.

但世行决定不将要求有女性董事会成员的法律规定计入得分，因为关于此类法律的价值的证据仍不充分。

According to the bank, for the first time in a decade the world’s best place to do business was somewhere other than Singapore, with New Zealand topping the rankings and the Asian island state falling to second place.

根据世行的数据，全球最佳经商之地十年来首次易主，新西兰升至榜首，亚洲岛国新加坡排名降至第二。

Somalia, which was included for the first time this year, was last among the 190 economies ranked.

今年首次被纳入排名的索马里在190个经济体中排名垫底。

This year’s rankings also include disappointing news for other big economies.

今年的排名中其他大型经济体也令人失望。

India, where the government of Mahendra Modi has put its Doing Business ranking at the heart of reform efforts, did not budge¹¹ in the rankings, coming in 130th and improving its score only marginally.

虽然纳伦德拉.莫迪(Narendra Modi)政府已把本国的营商环境排名放在改革努力的核心位置，但印度的表现并未出现太大起色，排在第130名，仅有略微提升。

China, which has sought to eliminate the rankings in the past, moved up six places to 78th place but remained below developing economies such as Azerbaijan, Jamaica and Mongolia.

曾希望世行删除排名的中国，上升了6位，至第78名，但仍低于阿塞拜疆、牙买加、蒙古等发展中经济体。

Augusto Lopez-Claros, director of the World Bank’s Global Indicators¹² Group, said researchers this year had documented a record 283 reforms in 137 of the 190 countries covered.

世行旗下全球指标小组(Global Indicators Group)负责人奥古斯托.洛佩斯-克拉罗斯(Augusto Lopez-Claros)称，研究人员今年记录了排名包括的190个国家中137个国家创纪录的283项改革。

Encouragingly, he said, 80 of those reforms had come in countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

他说，令人鼓舞的是，其中80项改革发生在撒哈拉以南的非洲国家。