I came upon this article in The National Law Review (October 2021) and hope you also find it of interest.
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The Arizona State University Center for the Study of Economic Liberty recently released Doing Business North America 2020 (DBNA), a report analyzing and comparing data indicative of the regulatory context for business activity in a number of metropolitan areas. The report ranked 130 cities across Canada, Mexico, and the United States, based on 111 variables for determining where the best places to do business are currently (although given the ever-changing local, state, and federal landscapes, the assessment may change frequently). The variables underlying the rankings fall into six broad categories: starting a business; employing workers; obtaining electricity, land and space use; and paying taxes and resolving insolvency.
The DBNA project assigned each city an “Ease of Doing Business” score and ranked the cities accordingly. . According to the report, the best U.S. cities for doing business based on the six criteria above include top-ranked Raleigh, NC, followed by Jackson, MS; Tulsa, OK; Sioux Falls, SD; Charleston, SC; Houston, TX; San Antonio, TX; Colorado Springs, CO; Cincinnati, OH; and Cheyenne, WY.
The five U.S. cities receiving the DBNA project’s lowest rankings related to difficulty doing business based on the six criteria are: (1) Newark, NJ; (2) San Diego, CA; (3) San Jose, CA; (4) New York City, NY; and (5) Los Angeles, CA.
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Why is each rated as it is? Here is a direct link to the complete article.