Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey

Five rounds of the survey have so far been implemented (1999, 2002, 2005, 2009 and 2012-14). Furthermore, to set a benchmark for the transition countries, a survey of comparator countries was conducted in 2004-2005 covering Germany, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, South Korea, Spain and Vietnam. 

BEEPS has been supported by various donors over time, including Vneshekonombank, the EBRD Shareholder Special Fund, Southern and Eastern Mediterranean cooperation funds account (BEEPS V), the Taiwan Business - EBRD TC Fund, EBRD - Canadian Technical Cooperation Fund 2006-2009 (BEEPS IV) and the Japan Europe Cooperation Fund and the Multi-donor Fund for the Early Transition Countries (BEEPS III).

The Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) is a joint initiative of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the World Bank Group (the World Bank). It is a firm-level survey of a representative sample of an economy’s private sector whose objective is to gain an understanding of firms’ perception of the environment in which they operate. BEEPS covers a broad range of business environment topics including access to finance, corruption, infrastructure, crime, competition, and performance measures. Its findings can be used to help policy makers better understand how the businesses experience the business environment and identify, prioritize and implement reforms of policies and institutions that support efficient private economic activity.

The survey was first undertaken on behalf of the EBRD and the World Bank in 1999 – 2000, when it was administered to approximately 4,100 enterprises in 25 countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia (including Turkey) to assess the environment for private enterprise and business development.

In the second round of BEEPS in 2002, the survey instrument was administered to almost 6,700 enterprises in 27 countries. In the third round of BEEPS, the survey included approximately 9,900 enterprises in 27 countries in 2005. In seven of the countries the survey included an additional sampling overlay of the manufacturing sector in addition to the main BEEPS sample. Furthermore, to set a benchmark for the transition countries, a survey of comparator countries was conducted in 2004-2005 in two rounds (Germany, Greece, Portugal, South Korea and Vietnam were covered in 2004 and Ireland and Spain in 2005).

In the fourth round of BEEPS in 2008-2009, the survey covered almost 12,000 enterprises in 29 countries (including Mongolia for the first time). The survey was restructured to improve cross-country comparability and to make it compatible with the Enterprise Surveys the Enterprise Analysis Unit of the World Bank has been implementing in other regions of the world since 2006. There were changes in the questionnaire and methodology.

The fifth round of BEEPS in 2011-2014 covered almost 16,000 enterprises in 30 countries, including 4,220 enterprises in 37 regions in Russia. The latest round includes an Innovation Module, covering product, process, organisational and marketing innovation, as well as management practices in manufacturing enterprises with at least 20 employees (50 employees in Russia).

The Joint WBG/EBRD/EIB MENA Enterprise Surveys (MENA ES), conducted in 2012-2014 in 9 countries, covered more than 6,500 enterprises in 9 countries, including almost 2,900 enterprises in Egypt. The MENA ES are comparable to BEEPS V and also include an Innovation Module.

If you decide to use the data, we would like to ask you to consider the conditions for their use. Finally, we provide a short description on how to import the datasets into Microsoft Excel.

BEEPS has been supported by various donors over time, including:

• The EBRD Shareholder Special Fund (BEEPS V and BEEPS VI/EBRD-EIB-WBG Enterprise Surveys),
• Southern and Eastern Mediterranean cooperation funds account (MENA ES),
• Vneshekonombank (BEEPS V Russia),
• TaiwanBusiness – EBRD TC Fund (BEEPS IV),
• EBRD – Canadian Technical Cooperation Fund 2006-2009 (BEEPS IV),
• The Japan EBRD Cooperation Fund (BEEPS III) and
• The Early Transition Countries multi-donor fund (ETC Fund) (BEEPS III).

All users of the data are asked to cite the data as the “EBRD-World Bank Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS)“. Registration is required to access full, firm-level data. We request that the dataset not be further distributed, to ensure that all users see and read this screen.

World Bank collaboration: This study was done in conjunction with the World Bank, which also makes the dataset available in the World Bank Enterprise Surveys portal.

• Download the files by right clicking on them. Do not open them directly.
• Launch MS Excel.
• Go to Data/Import External Data/Import Data and select the file from which you would like to import the data and click open. The programme will launch “Text Import Wizard”.
• Step 1: The wizard should automatically recognise the file as delimited. If not, then choose this option manually.
• Step 2: The data is in comma delimited form. Please tick this box.
• Follow the remaining steps and specify the location where you would like to import the data.
• The text import wizard will then import as much data as will fit a single Excel worksheet.
• To continue importing the data, repeat the same operation on another Excel worksheet, this time excluding the data already imported.