The Bottom Billion

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The Bottom Billion
Hardcover Book Cover for The Bottom Billion
Author	Paul Collier
Language	English
Publisher	Oxford University Press
Publication date	April 15, 2007
ISBN	978-0-19-531145-7
OCLC Number	76073943
Dewey Decimal	338.9009172/4 22
LC Classification	HC79.P6 C634 2007

The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It is a 2007 book by Professor Paul Collier exploring the reason why impoverished countries fail to progress despite international aid and support. In the book Collier argues that there are many countries whose residents have experienced little, if any, income growth over the 1980s and 1990s. On his reckoning, there are just under 60 such economies, home to almost 1 billion people.^[1]

Contents 1 Summary 2 Bottom Billion Countries 3 Reviews 4 References

[edit] Summary

The book suggests that, whereas the majority of the 5-billion people in the "developing world" are getting richer at an unprecedented rate, a group of countries (mostly in Africa and Central Asia but with a smattering elsewhere)^[2] are stuck and that development assistance should be focused heavily on them. These countries typically suffer from one or more development traps:

• The Conflict Trap - civil wars (with an estimated average cost of $64bn each) or coups.^[3]
• The Natural Resource Trap - having to rely on natural resources which can stifle other economic activity and lead to bad governance and coups/conflict.^[4]
• Landlocked with Bad Neighbours - poor landlocked countries with poor neighbours find it almost impossible to tap into world economic growth.^[5]
• Bad Governance in a Small Country - terrible governance and policies can destroy an economy with alarming speed.^[6]

He suggests a number of relatively inexpensive but institutionally difficult changes:

1. Aid agencies should increasingly be concentrated in the most difficult environments, accept more risk. Ordinary citizens should not support poorly informed vociferous lobbies whose efforts are counterproductive and severely constrain what the Aid agencies can do.^[7]
2. Appropriate Military Interventions (such as the British in Sierra Leone) should be encouraged, especially to guarantee democratic governments against coups.^[8]
3. International Charters are needed to encourage good governance and provide prototypes.^[9]
4. Trade Policy needs to encourage free-trade and give preferential access to Bottom Billion exports.^[10] At present "Rich-country protectionism masquerades in alliance with antiglobalization romantics and third world crooks".^[11]

[edit] Bottom Billion Countries

The book does not include a list of bottom billion countries because Collier believes this might lead to a "self-fulfilling prophecy." However, he states that there are 58 such countries mentioned throughout the book.^[2]

[edit] Reviews

• Martin Wolf in the Financial Times called it "a splendid book" and "particularly enjoyed the attack on the misguided economics of many non-governmental organisations." He says that Collier sheds much light on how the world should tackle its biggest moral challenge. It shows, too, how far western governments and other external actors are from currently giving the sort of help these countries desperately need.^[12]
• The Guardian called it an important book and suggested that citizens of G8 countries should fight for change along the lines he suggests^[13]
• The Economist said it was "set to become a classic" and "should be compulsory reading for anyone embroiled in the hitherto thankless business of trying to pull people out of the pit of poverty where the “bottom billion” of the world's population of 6.6 billion seem irredeemably stuck".^[14]
• Nicolas Kristof in the New York Times described it as "'The best book on international affairs so far this year"^[15]
• William Easterly, influential American economist specialising in economic growth and foreign aid, critically assessed The Bottom Billion in The Lancet. He lambasts it for being an 'ivory tower analysis of real world poverty.^[16]
• Samuel Grove in the Monthly Review's website "Mr Zine" heavily criticised the book, describing it as a "confused array of conflations, fallacies and falsehoods" and a "brazen imperial mandate".^[17]

[edit] References