
Boosting Business inRegions Easing Administrative Burdens andFinancing Constraints Boosting Businessin Regions EASING ADMINISTRATIVE BURDENSAND FINANCING CONSTRAINTS This work is published under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed andarguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Member countries of the OECD. This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibilityof the OECD and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union. This document, as well as any data and map included herein, are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty overany territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area. The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and under the responsibility of the relevant Israeli authorities. The use ofsuch data by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements inthe West Bank under the terms of international law. Please cite this publication as: OECD (2025),Boosting Business in Regions: Easing Administrative Burdens and Financing Constraints, OECD RegionalDevelopment Studies, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/396cc7c2-en. ISBN 978-92-64-44556-7 (print)ISBN 978-92-64-53601-2 (PDF)ISBN 978-92-64-34853-0 (HTML) OECD Regional Development StudiesISSN 2789-7990 (print)ISSN 2789-8008 (online) Photo credits:Cover © espiegle/Getty Images Plus. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) This work is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. By using this work, you accept to be bound by the terms of this licence(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Attribution– you must cite the work.Translations– you must cite the original work, identify changes to the original and add the following text:In the event of any discrepancy between the original work and thetranslation, only the text of the original work should be considered valid.Adaptations– you must cite the original work and add the following text:This is an adaptation of an original work by the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed inthis adaptation should not be reported as representing the official views of the OECD or of its Member countries.Third-party material– the licence does not apply to third-party material in the work. If using such material, you are responsible for obtaining permission from the third party and forany claims of infringement.You must not use the OECD logo, visual identity or cover image without express permission or suggest the OECD endorses your use of the work.Any dispute arising under this licence shall be settled by arbitration in accordance with the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) Arbitration Rules 2012. The seat of arbitration shallbe Paris (France). The number of arbitrators shall be one. Foreword Many factors help boost businessinnovation, and in turn economicgrowth.Thesealsoinclude factorsthatare fundamentally spatial andrelated to thebusiness environmentof the region within which firms operate,such as the institutional and regulatory framework, the market conditions firms face, and supportiveinfrastructurefortransport, digital networks and research.Other important factorsthat also have spatialcharacteristics relate toaccess to strategic resources, such as workers with the right skillsandaccess tofinance for investment and operations. These spatial factors can differ substantially within countries, with particularly large impacts onsmall andmedium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which tend to be more dependent on, and sensitive to,local conditionsand resources than larger firms. This report examines two aspects of the regional business environment that are critical to understandingdifferences in productivity growth within countries: regional institutional quality and access to debt finance,the primary source of financing for most firms.Even if the framework conditions shaping institutional qualityand access to finance are often set at the national level, their impact dependson the characteristics of theregional business environments in which firms operate. Both national and subnational governments can take steps to boost business in regions. First, whendeveloping regulation, they can integrate regulatory impact assessments, adopt agile approaches in areaswith rapidly evolving technology and consider regularly reviewing existing regulation to ensure itsrelevance. Second, they can reduce administrative burdens and compliance costs by accelerating thedigitalisationof administrative processes and implementing“once-only”approaches to informationprovision to the public sector. Establishing one-stop shops at the subnational or national level, with theoption to tailor services to local needs, can streamline interactions between businesses and publicauthoritie