Logical Reasoning

PT150 · S3 · Q21 Finance minister: The World Bank's

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Finance minister: The World Bank's “Doing Business” report ranks countries in terms of ease of doing business in them.

Conclusion

Our "Doing Business" ranking will probably improve.

Evidence

"Doing Business" rankings are based on how easy it is to do business in a given country.

Since the last "Doing Business" rankings came out, our government has dramatically simplified tax filing for small and midsized businesses.

Evaluate

There's a missing link assumption occurring that . So we could see a correct answer that just asks that assumption,

But we can also dig into the conclusion ...

Given that ... we've simplified the tax code since last report, How could it be that ... our ranking doesn't go up?

Well, what about for large businesses? Did we simplify their tax code? Did it get worse? Is it a big part of the "Doing Business" ranking how easy it is for large businesses to do business in a given country?

Finally, let's say we really did get easier for businesses -- that doesn't necessarily mean we rise in the rankings. It's possible that other businesses above us in the rankings also got easier to work with, thereby maintaining or increasing their superiority over us.

And it's possible that the next country higher than us in the rankings was so much higher than us that even though we've improved we still haven't eclipsed them.

Goal

Look for an answer choice posing a question that could be answered in a way that would weaken the argument.

In other words, find a question where you could answer it in a way that would help you argue that this business's "Doing Business" ranking is not going to improve in the next issued report.

21.

The answer to which one of the following questions would most help in evaluating the finance minister's argument?

  1. If the finance minister's country

    Unrelated to Goal

    This is a hypothetical about what would happen if we did something that isn't currently the case. All we care about is whether what is currently the case is enough to improve our ranking. Whether or not regulation-reform would hypothetically make us even more business friendly has nothing to do with assessing reality: will our tax reform earn us a higher ranking?

    5% picked this

  2. Has compliance with tax laws

    Unclear Impact

    This answer focuses on the reformed tax laws, which is what we hope will be the causal difference-maker in raising our ranking, but it's just talking about whether compliance with the new tax code has increased or not. Whether or not more people are complying with a tax code doesn't have any strong common sense connection to how easy it is to do business in a country.

    33% picked this

  3. For small and midsized businesses

    Irrelevant Comparison

    To assess whether we'll move up in the rankings, we only care about comparisons such as these: - is our new tax law making it easier to do business in our country? - has our country improved its business-friendly characteristics more than other countries have, since the last rankings come out? We don't get any value out of comparing tax prep to other business necessities. We would care if our country has significantly more difficult regulations than other countries, because that would relate to whether our country as a whole is more/less business-friendly than others.

    26% picked this

  4. Correct

    Is what the finance minister

    Why this is right

    If we say YES, then it's weaken. If the World Bank ranks each country based on how easy it would be for a hypothetical business to navigate that country's tax and regulation systems, and their hypothetical business is larger than the small and midsize businesses discussed, then the improvements that have been made to the tax code for small/midsize businesses don't have any effect on the World Bank rankings. Thus, the argument lacks any relevant supporting premise at all. A huge way to weaken a case is to disqualify a piece of evidence. If the World Bank calculates ease of doing business based on a metric that excludes small/midsize business considerations, then the tax simplifications for those groups are totally excluded from the World Bank's calculation.

    Skill tested: Evaluate · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    36% picked this

  5. Was the finance minister in

    Irrelevant

    There's never been a question that cared who was saying the paragraph, so personally I'm never looking at the name of the person talking. LSAT wants us to judge ideas, not care about who is saying them. We wouldn't have any idea what effect, if any, it would have on the upcoming rankings of how easy it is to do business in this country, to learn that the finance minister was or wasn't on the job previously.

    1% picked this

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