Country Analysis

Political/legal aspects
-Type of government (describe the government, stability of government,
head of state and government, different roles, different branches of the
government, degree of centralized power versus state/local control)
-Political risk assessment (degree to which changes have occurred in the
government, civil unrest, assessment of citizens’ freedom – freedom of press,
religion, association, etc.)…make sure to include Freedom House’s ratings for
political and civil rights
-Type of legal system (civil, common, theocratic)…are bureaucrats heavily
involved in the legal system or is it independent? Is it efficient or backlogged?
-Legal protection of contracts
-Legal protection of property (as stated in the law but also as indicated in
practice), intellectual property (treaties dealing with intellectual property as
well as in practice)…some ratings in Heritage foundation have good info for
this also the World Bank doingbusiness.org site.
-Country’s trade policy (Heritage Foundation)
-Country’s laws regarding ownership (FDI): are foreign companies allowed to
own 100%; are there restrictions in specific industries for FDI? (Heritage
Foundation)
-Procedures that you need to follow when exporting to the country or
investing in country…more than providing details, assess whether there is a
lot of bureaucracy/red tape that you need to deal with (World Bank’s doing
business.org).
-Corruption perception index…(Transparency International’s ratings)

Economic aspects
-Type of economy: government involvement in business regulation and
ownership/planning, degree to which there is business freedom, degree of
government expenditure versus consumption, amount of privatization &
regulation…the following categories in Heritage Foundation include a lot of
this: business freedom, freedom from government, financial freedom…make
sure to include HF’s ratings of the country on these (and any other that seem
relevant) key aspects of economic freedom and provide critical info given
-Structure of the economy (percentage agriculture, service, vs.
manufacturing)
-Standard of living (degree of poverty, distribution of income –if noting GINI
index, explain whether rating means income is well distributed or not)
-Purchasing power per capita income, country’s GDP and the percentage of
economic growth (in previous year, and also try to find historical growth –
past 3-5 years),
-Inflation (previous year and past 3-5 years)
-Balance of payments – current account: surplus/deficit (again try to take a
historical perspective)
 -Foreign exchange system: type of system (fixed, floating); stability of
currency value; restrictions on converting currency?
-Corporate tax structures (what % do companies pay in taxes?)
Socioeconomic and cultural aspect
-Population, growth of population
-Labor force (distribution of labor in different sectors of the economy)
-Level of unemployment and underemployment if applicable (take historical
perspective)
-Cost of labor (per hour, per day, per month), if possible also find cost of
labor in specific fields (especially in the industry you want to enter)
-Skill of labor force (literacy, educational level –percentage that attend
elementary, high school, college – technical skills available, managerial talent
available, etc.)
-Union influence (% of employees represented, role of union, are they
powerful? Are strikes typical, do unions work well with management, etc.)
-Employment regulations (both Heritage and WB have info on the freedom
that companies have in dealing with the workforce)
-Language (diversity of languages)
-Ethnicity in population, issues between ethnic groups
-Gender issues if any (participation of women in workforce)
-Religion (diversity of religions practiced), degree to which religion impacts
culture
-Cultural values …at a minimum look up Hofstede’s research (website
provided in my links) but try to find specific culture practices at work:
employee participation, typical organization -- small, family-owned, state-
owned?

Most of the information is provided in the following websites:

Freedom House:
http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world-
2014#.U-oawmOwVrs

Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom:

http://www.heritage.org/index/ranking

WB Doing Business
www.doingbusiness.org

World Factbook as provided by the Central Intelligence Agency

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/

U.S. State Department:

Economic reports
http://www.state.gov/e/eb/rls/rpts/eptp/
Background notes
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/

Library of Congress
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html

Hofstede Value Rankings:

http://www.geert-hofstede.com

NationMaster
http://nationmaster.com

Transparency International - Internet Center for Corruption Research

http://www.transparency.org/cpi2013/results

Human Development Index

http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/