World Bank Enterprise Survey 2011-2022

Iraq, 2011 - 2022

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Reference ID

IRQ_2011-2022_WBES_v01_M

Producer(s)

World Bank Group (WBG)

Collection(s)

Enterprise Surveys

Metadata

Documentation in PDF DDI/XML JSON

Study website

Created on

Jan 13, 2026

Last modified

Jan 13, 2026

Page views

22511

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490

Identification

Survey ID number

IRQ_2011-2022_WBES_v01_M

Title

World Bank Enterprise Survey 2011-2022

Abbreviation or Acronym

WBES 2011-2022

Country/Economy

Name	Country code
Iraq	IRQ

Study type

Enterprise Survey [en/oth]

Series Information

As part of its strategic goal of building a climate for investment, job creation, and sustainable growth, the World Bank has promoted improving business environments as a key strategy for development, which has led to a systematic effort in collecting enterprise data across countries. The Enterprise Surveys are an ongoing World Bank project in collecting both objective data based on firms' experiences and enterprises' perception of the environment in which they operate.

An Enterprise Survey is a firm-level survey of a representative sample of an economy's private sector. Firm-level surveys have been conducted since 1998 by different units within the World Bank. Since 2005-2006, most data collection efforts have been centralized within the Enterprise Analysis Unit. The Enterprise Surveys are conducted across all geographic regions and cover small, medium, and large companies. The surveys are administered to a representative sample of firms in the non-agricultural formal private economy. Data are used to create indicators that benchmark the quality of the business and investment climate across countries.

Abstract

The World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) is a firm-level survey of a representative sample of an economy's private sector. The surveys cover a broad range of topics related to the business environment including access to finance, corruption, infrastructure, competition, and performance.

Kind of Data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Unit of Analysis

The primary sampling unit of the study is the establishment. An establishment is a physical location where business is carried out and where industrial operations take place or services are provided. A firm may be composed of one or more establishments. For example, a brewery may have several bottling plants and several establishments for distribution. For the purposes of this survey an establishment must make its own financial decisions and have its own financial statements separate from those of the firm. An establishment must also have its own management and control over its payroll.

Version

Version Notes

Enterprise Survey panel data

Scope

Notes

The 2011 and 2022 Iraq World Bank Enterprise Survey covered the following topics:

General information of a firm/ establishment
Infrastructure and services
Sales and supplies
Management practices (2022)
Competition and innovation (2011)
-- Degree of competition (2022)
Innovation (2022)
Capacity
Land and permits
Crime
Finance
Business-Government relations
Labor
Business environment
Performance

Coverage

Geographic Coverage

National coverage

Universe

The universe of inference includes all formal (i.e., registered) private sector businesses (with at least 1% private ownership) and with at least five employees. In terms of sectoral criteria, all manufacturing businesses (ISIC Rev 4. codes 10-33) are eligible; for services businesses, those corresponding to the ISIC Rev 4 codes 41-43, 45-47, 49-53, 55-56, 58, 61-62, 69-75, 79, and 95 are included in the Enterprise Surveys. Cooperatives and collectives are excluded from the Enterprise Surveys.

Producers and sponsors

Primary investigators

Name
World Bank Group (WBG)

Funding Agency/Sponsor

Name	Abbreviation
World Bank Group	WBG

Sampling

Sampling Procedure

The WBES use stratified random sampling, where the population of establishments is first separated into non-overlapping groups, called strata, and then respondents are selected through simple random sampling from each stratum. The detailed methodology is provided in the Sampling Note (https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/content/dam/enterprisesurveys/documents/methodology/Sampling_Note-Consolidated-2-16-22.pdf). Stratified random sampling has several advantages over simple random sampling. In particular, it:

produces unbiased estimates of the whole population or universe of inference, as well as at the levels of stratification
ensures representativeness by including observations in all of those categories
produces more precise estimates for a given sample size or budget allocation, and
may reduce implementation costs by splitting the population into convenient subdivisions.

The WBES typically use three levels of stratification: industry classification, establishment size, and subnational region (used in combination).

Survey instrument

Questionnaires

The standard WBES questionnaire covers several topics regarding the business environment and business performance. These topics include general firm characteristics, infrastructure, sales and supplies, management practices, competition, innovation, capacity, land and permits, finance, business-government relations, exposure to bribery, labor, and performance. Information about the general structure of the questionnaire is available in the Enterprise Surveys Manual and Guide (https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/content/dam/enterprisesurveys/documents/methodology/Enterprise-Surveys-Manual-and-Guide.pdf).

Methodology notes

The Enterprise Surveys panel datasets have the following common format:
• Variable panel allows easy identification of panel observations
• Variable panelid is the same across the waves for the same firm
• Variable eligibility reports eligibility status of all firms interviewed in the previous wave as of the of the latest wave
o e.g. in 2013-2016 panel, eligibility2016 reports status as of 2016 of all firms interviewed in 2013
• Wherever possible variables are matched across waves. If needed, matches are made by converting variable names in older waves to variable names in the most recent wave
• Due to methodological changes and evolution of the survey instrument it is not possible to match all variables in the datasets
• Variables that are not matched across waves are named as , with the year in which the variable was collected (e.g. _2013_date)
• It is recommended that users thoroughly familiarize themselves with the questionnaires from each of the years contained in the dataset before proceeding with analysis
• Some monetary unit variables in 2002 and 2005 surveys (in US currency) are converted into the local currency units (LCU) using the market, period average, exchange rates. The sources of the exchange rates are the International Financial Statistics (IFS - IMF) websites.
• Weights are representative of the universe for the year that the firm was interviewed. They are not panel weights.

Data collection

Dates of Data Collection

Start	End	Cycle
2011-03	2011-10	ES 2011
2021-12	2022-08	ES 2022

Data Collection Mode

Face-to-face [f2f]

Data Collection Notes

Detailed information on the WBES methodology and data collection is provided in the Enterprise Surveys Manual and Guide (https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/content/dam/enterprisesurveys/documents/methodology/Enterprise-Surveys-Manual-and-Guide.pdf).

The interviews for the Iraq 2011 WBES were conducted between March 2011 and October 2011.
The interviews for the Iraq 2022 WBES were conducted between December 2021 and August 2022. The interviews were conducted in the following languages: Arabic or Kurdish. For monetary variables, the currency was Iraqi Dinar.

Apart from the challenges with participation and call-backs that are standard for all surveys, the Iraq 2022 WBES faced multiple fieldwork setbacks from the protests and unexpected security issues. The changing government policies on access for research also delayed fieldwork as the field team needed to apply for additional permits.

Access policy

Citation requirements

The World Bank Group. Iraq - World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) 2011-2022, Ref. IRQ_2011-2022_WBES_v01_M. Dataset downloaded from https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/en/data on [date].

Disclaimer and copyrights

Disclaimer

The user of the data acknowledges that the original collector of the data, the authorized distributor of the data, and the relevant funding agency bear no responsibility for use of the data or for interpretations or inferences based upon such uses.

Contacts

Name	Affiliation	Email
Enterprise Analysis Unit	World Bank Group	enterprisesurveys@worldbank.org

Metadata production

DDI Document ID

DDI_IRQ_2011-2022_WBES_v01_M_WB

Producers

Name	Abbreviation	Affiliation	Role
Development Data Group	DECDG	World Bank Group	Documentation of the study

Date of Metadata Production

2026-01-13

Metadata version

DDI Document version

Version 01 (January 2026)

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