Indicators of Product Market Regulation (PMR)

The OECD indicators of Product Market Regulation (PMR) are a comprehensive and internationally-comparable set of indicators that measure the degree to which policies promote or inhibit competition in areas of the product market where competition is viable. They measure the economy-wide regulatory and market environments in OECD countries in (or around) 1998 and 2003, and are consistent across time and countries.

The indicators cover formal regulations in the following areas:

• state control of business enterprises;
• legal and administrative barriers to entrepreneurship;
• barriers to international trade and investment.

The 2003 update and revision of the PMR indicators is described in OECD Economics Department Working Paper No. 419, "Product market regulation in OECD countries: 1998 to 2003."

The original 1998 work on the PMR indicators is described in OECD Economics Department Working Paper No. 226, "Summary indicators of product market regulation with an extension to employment protection legislation".

The PMR indicator values can be assessed via the OECD Stats Browser. Alternatively, an Excel file of the full set of PMR indicators for 1998 and 2003 is also available.

• PMR indicators via the OECD Stats Browser.
• Complete set of PMR indicators in Excel format .

The main sources of information used to construct the PMR indicators are the responses of OECD member governments to the Regulatory Indicators Questionnaire and data published by the OECD and other international organisations. All these data have been extensively checked by OECD and government experts.  The regulatory data used to construct the PMR indicators can be viewed in the OECD Stats Browser (see above) or downloaded in an excel file. 

• 2003 OECD Regulatory Indicators Questionnaire.
• 1998 OECD Regulatory Indicators Questionnaire.
• All of the regulatory data used to construct the PMR indicators.