The COVID-19 pandemic has had widespread global economic impacts, and countries are gearing up for recovery. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be crucial. Given that the SDGs incorporate the four pillars of capital — human, social, natural and physical — these targets will be useful in the post-pandemic economic recovery process. This brief utilises econometric analysis to illustrate how the implementation of the SDGs is a statistically significant variable in a country’s improved performance in the Ease of Doing Business Index which, in turn, can aid in building back better as the world enters the second year of the pandemic.

This brief establishes the link between the SDGs and the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business (EDB) scores by demonstrating through econometric techniques that an improvement in SDG indicators will have spillover effects on a country’s EDB ranking. EDB captures the relative ease with which countries can attract foreign investment and businesses. Such attractiveness to business, in turn, is crucial for the post-pandemic economic recovery of developing countries. Research has shown that focusing on SDGs improves the ease of doing business in Indian states.