Paul Collier

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Paul Collier, CBE is a Professor of Economics, Director for the Centre for the Study of African Economies at The University of Oxford and Fellow of St Antony's College. From 1998 – 2003 he was the director of the Development Research Group of the World Bank.^[1]

Prof. Collier is a specialist in the political, economical and developmental predicaments of poor countries.^[2] He was brought up in Sheffield where he attended King Edward VII School.^[3] He holds a Distinction Award from Oxford University,^[1] and in 1988 he was awarded the Edgar Graham Book Prize for the co-written Labour and poverty in rural Tanzania: Ujamaa and rural development in the United Republic of Tanzania.^[4]

His most recent book, entitled "Wars, Guns and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places", was published in March 2009.

His previous book, The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It (ISBN 0195311450), has been compared^[2] to Jeffrey Sachs's The End of Poverty and William Easterly's The White Man's Burden, two influential books, which like Collier's book, discuss the pros and cons of developmental aid to developing countries.

He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours.^[5] He is a patron of the Media Legal Defence Initiative.

He is currently working for the Copenhagen Consensus, where he is the expert on conflict.

SafeFoodInc.org, a website run by an alliance of food production companies created to denounce the content of the progressive documentary Food, Inc., features an interview with Collier that contains polemical skepticism toward the viability of organic farming. [[1]]

Contents 1 Work 1.1 Research Topics 1.2 Selected Publications 1.3 Video 1.4 Press 2 See also 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Work

[edit] Research Topics

• Governance in low-income countries, especially the political economy of democracy
• Economic growth in Africa
• Economics of civil war, aid, globalisation and poverty
• The greed vs grievance debate in international relations

[edit] Selected Publications

• Labour and poverty in rural Tanzania: Ujamaa and rural development in the United Republic of Tanzania
• The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It (ISBN 0195311450)
• (with Anke Hoeffler) ‘On economic causes of civil war’ Oxford Economic Papers, vol 50 iss 4, (1998), pp 563–573.
• (with Anke Hoeffler) ‘Greed and grievance in civil war’ Oxford Economic Papers, vol 56 iss 4, (2004), pp 563–595.
• (with Lisa Chauvet and Haavard Hegre) 'The Security Challenge in Conflict-Prone Countries', Copenhagen Consensus 2008 Challenge Paper, (2008).
• Wars, Guns and Votes; Democracy in Dangerous Places, Harper, (2009)

[edit] Video

• The Royal Economic Society's 2006 Annual Public Lecture, by Prof. Coller
• Interview with Fareed Zakaria on Foreign Exchange
• TED Conference, Paul Collier on "The Bottom Billion"
• TED Conference, Paul Collier's new rules for rebuilding a broken nation

[edit] Press

• Review of the Bottom Billion by the Financial Times
• Review of the Bottom Billion in The New York Times
• Review of The Bottom Billion by William Easterly in The Lancet
• Review of the Bottom Billion by Mr Zine

[edit] See also

• Dutch Disease
• Resource Curse
• Economic Rent

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Prof. Paul Collier's home page at Oxford University
• Links to downloadable research papers on Africa, Aid, Conflict, Political Economy and other topics
• Interview with Paul Collier by J. Tyler Dickovick
• Video of recent talk at Oxford University - "The Bottom Billion"
• TED Talks: Paul Collier shares 4 ways to help the "bottom billion" at TED in 2008