Pre-Analysis Plan v1.1 - Regulatory burden on formal firms in Uzbekistan, 2008-2024: evidence from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys

This is a pre-analysis plan, deposited before estimation. It contains no findings. It specifies in advance the hypotheses, outcome variables, specifications, subgroups, robustness checks and publication rules for a study of whether the measured burden of government regulation on formal firms in Uzbekistan changed between 2008 and 2024, and in particular between 2019 and 2024, using the World Bank Enterprise Surveys. Version 1.1 comprises v1.0 (31 August 2026) plus Amendment 1 (1 September 2026) and its resolutions addendum. Amendment 1 section 0 discloses in full what was observed from the data files before the amendment was written, and states which hypotheses retain confirmatory pre-registration status and which are labelled exploratory as a result. H10b is exploratory on those grounds; all other hypotheses are confirmatory. Stage 1, the benchmark-reproduction gate, was unopened at the time of deposit. The accompanying data availability audit is the dated record of the structural inspection that Amendment 1 section 0 refers to. Analysis of the underlying microdata is governed by the World Bank Enterprise Surveys Data Access Protocol. No microdata is redistributed here or in any output of this project. Replication code: https://github.com/ProgrmerJack/