Introduction
The OECD PUMA Multi-country Business Survey Database is a international database presenting results of a survey implemented between April 1998 and March 1999 by eleven countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Iceland, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. For each of the eleven countries the database gives the opinion of a sample of small and medium businesses on:
- quality of the regulation;
- quality of the regulatory administration; and
- estimates of the administrative costs of complying with the regulation.
For three sector-specific regulations:
- employment
- environment and
- tax
the database provides a "snapshot" of the opinion of 7859 small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in
1998/1999.
How to install the database
Follow the instructions in this document to install the database. Note: you need Microsoft Access 7.0 to run the the programme.
Detailed description of the survey
Background
Mandated by the Working Party on Regulatory Management and Reform, PUMA developed a business survey in order to help OECD countries to gather important information about the cost and quality of regulations and their administration. This should enable them to focus on areas of perceived weakness and investigate strategies to improve the quality of regulations and formalities. The specific objective of the survey is to contribute towards the ultimate development of comparative qualitative and quantitative indicators of key aspects of national regulatory and administrative systems.
A key dimension of the survey concerned the comparability of results: comparability between policy areas, firm sizes, and economic sectors within a country, and comparability of results between different participating countries. The ultimate aim is to be able to identify good practices both within and between countries.
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