CLASSIFICATION OF EUROPEAN UNION MEMBER AND CANDIDATE COUNTRIES ACCORDING TO EASE OF DOING BUSINESS INDEX USING FUZZY CLUSTERING

Abstract

Countries encourage both their own citizens and foreign investors to do business in order to keep the economy going. However, problems that may arise while doing business or long periods of waiting for certain procedures might push away investors to other countries. The World Bank and the International Finance Corporation prepare Doing Business Reports to showcase the environment of business in countries. These reports compose an index for ease of doing business for each country, helping these countries to know their strength and weakness in terms of doing business. The reports also help investors to compare the state of each country and make a decision. This study aims to classify the countries that are member or candidate to the European Union according to Doing Business Index through fuzzy clustering analysis. Two clusters are formed at the end of the study and the results are interpreted.