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International Market Access Indicator

Description

This An index measuring a country government’s commitment to the free movement of capital, citizen access to international capital markets, and the barriers to global market access through import or export controls. This includes the cost and time for companies to comply with import and export requirements as well as controls on capital, investment, credit, and real estate.

Relationship to Economic Growth

Access to international markets has an impact on economic growth by providing opportunities for economic specialization, increasing investment, and raising productivity.118 International market access can help to accelerate long run economic growth by allowing for greater economic specialization, encouraging investment and increasing productivity.119 Rent seeking and corruption can be reduced by allowing for greater international competition.120 The relationship between trade openness and poverty reduction is complex; research suggests opening markets can improve the livelihoods and real incomes of the poor.121 Capital controls has been linked to lower economic growth and less FDI in many developing countries, though the research on the topic is nuanced and there may be some limited situations in which temporary capital controls are merited.122

Methodology

Indicator Institution Methodology

This indicator uses data from two sources: the World Bank’s Business Ready (B-Ready) report on International Trade (https://www.worldbank.org/en/businessready/data) and the IMF’s Annual Report on Exchange Arrangements and Exchange Restrictions (AREAER), specifically the portion that assesses capital controls (https://www.elibrary-areaer.imf.org/Pages/Home.aspx). The indicators use a combination of expert surveys, firm surveys, and expert analysis to determine a country’s score.

  • B-Ready: Compliance with Export Requirements: This component of B-Ready’s International Trade index (Category 3.1) is based on 2 sub-components: the total cost and the total time to comply with export requirements.  These data are based on firm surveys capturing:
    • The period (in days) required for directly exported goods to be released by all border control agencies, including clearance procedures prior to arrival at the point of exit.
    • The total costs associated with complying with all export requirements, including customs fees, other required payments, and payments made to customs brokers or freight forwarders, transportation freight, trade finance, and insurance services.
  • B-Ready: Compliance with Import Requirements: This component of B-Ready’s International Trade index (Category 3.2) is based on 2 sub-components: the total cost and the total time to comply with import requirements.  These data are based on firm surveys capturing:
    • The period (in days) required for directly imported material inputs and supplies (or finished goods and materials purchased to resell) to be released by all border control agencies, including clearance procedures prior to arrival at the point of entry until all material inputs and supplies are released.
    • The total costs associated with complying with all import requirements, including customs fees, other required payments, and payments made to customs brokers or freight forwarders.
  • AREAER: Capital Controls: IMF country experts provide information for the AREAER report to assess whether certain capital controls are in place.  MCC uses the eight sub-components of index XI.A Controls on capital transactions (Repatriation requirements, Controls on capital and money market instruments, Controls on derivatives and other instruments, Controls on credit operations, Controls on direct investments, Controls on liquidation of direct investment, Controls on real estate transactions and Controls on personal capital transactions).  These are each binary questions asking whether or not the particular capital control exists in the country.

MCC Methodology

MCC’s International Market Access Score = [ (Normalized B-Ready Export) ÷ 3] + [ (Normalized B-Ready Import) ÷ 3] + [ (Normalized AREAER Capital Controls) ÷ 3]

This index draws on the 2024 B-Ready dataset and the AREAER 2024 dataset released in 2025 representing calendar year 2023. Country scores are reported on the Scorecards as 2024 data. When some indicators are missing data, the others are used. Since the two sources of this index have different scales, MCC created a common scale for each of the indicators by normalizing them. Please see the equations below.

MCC Methodology to Normalize B-Ready and AREAER Data:

MCC uses the methods used for other indicators to normalize the B-Ready Export and Import data to a common scale.

  • Normalized B-Ready Export = (Number of countries scoring below Country X on Export’s raw data in the income group) ÷ (Number of Countries scoring equal to or greater than Country X on Export’s raw data in the income group + Number of countries scoring below Country X on Export’s raw data in the income group)
  • Normalized B-Ready Import = (Number of countries scoring below Country X on Import’s raw data in the income group) ÷ (Number of Countries scoring equal to or greater than Country X on Import’s raw data in the income group + Number of countries scoring below Country X on Import’s raw data in the income group)

To normalization process for AREAER is slightly more complicated.  To get the score from the eight binary datapoints, a country gets one point for each component where there is no capital control in place or the area is not regulated, and zero points if the area has a capital control or there is no information available.  This means a country can score between zero and eight on this component, where eight represents no capital controls.  This score is then normalized using the following process.

  • Normalized AREAER = (Number of countries scoring below Country X on AREAER’s raw data in the income group) ÷ (Number of Countries scoring equal to or greater than Country X on AREAER’s raw data in the income group + Number of countries scoring below Country X on AREAER’s raw data in the income group)

For example, to calculate a given country X’s score, MCC first finds the number of countries that score worse than that country in the income pool, and the number of countries that have the same or better score than country X on the sub-source in the income pool.  MCC then divides the number of countries below by the sum of the number of countries below and the number of countries equal or above.  Missing values are not included in these calculations.  Finally, MCC averages the normalized values for each source together. If one source is missing, the average of the normalized scores for the other two is used.  If two sources are missing, the normalized score for the other is used. If all three are missing, the indicator is considered missing and assigned an “N/A”.