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 enlarge | Author: Paul Collier
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $28.00
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Rating:  51 reviews
Sales Rank: 47665
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0195311450
Dewey Decimal Number: 338.90091724
EAN: 9780195311457
ASIN: 0195311450
Publication Date: April 27, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: New & Shrinkwrapped. In stock - Immediate despatch from an efficient and professional leading British bookselling firm.
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| Customer Reviews:
 A must read for development practitioners and those who care about the developing world poor September 14, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
For development professionals and those who care deeply about making aid work more effectively, this is an absolute must read. It confirms the need for agencies to focus on the long - run and to recognize and intervene quickly to take advantage of changing political landscapes. For those of us who have seen aid fail some many times, it provides us with a sound reminder that good program design is only part of the solution. We also need to change the mindsets of our own policy makers within the World Bank and the other large donors who are the decision makers on where aid flows. This book is extremely well - written and well supported with data. It is no doubt the best book I've read in the development aid genre.
One of the most important books i have read September 9, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Paul Collier has created a true masterpiece in the Bottom Billion. This book plays a critical role as the bridge between the 'headless heart' that Jeffrey Sachs sometimes seems to be and the pessimism of Easterly. Collier espouses real solutions to real problems, which he outlines with fluidity and emotion. He clearly has an immense heart, and yet fills his book with hard facts and difficult, yet viable solutions. One of the most critical books of the year dealing with development, if not the decade.
 tough going September 8, 2007
0 out of 12 found this review helpful
this book attempts to present a quantitative analysis of what we know from common sense already. the reasoning is sound but slow-going because the cases are argued from first principles. His prescriptions for solving the poverty problems seem rather naive. Having established, for example, that poverty breeds civil wars, he proposes much more frequent military intervention by the developed nations. Seems unlikely. Collier also questions the value of aid to the poorest who have no infrastructure to utilize it effectively. Here he's on solider ground. Overall I found tthe analysis altogether too academic.
Intelligent and Intelligible August 29, 2007
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
Collier begins by telling us that poverty is falling rapidly for about 80% of the world. The real crisis lies in a group of about 50 failing states (70% in Africa, the rest in Asia - eg. Afghanistan, with a few in South America) comprising the bottom billion. The corrupt in these nations are winning, and civil war, dependence on extraction and export of natural resources, and poor governance acerbate problems. Their decline is not just relative - often it is absolute.
These bottom-billion nations are small, and 73% are in or recently were in a civil war. Low income and slow growth make a country prone to civil war, as well as likely to also have weak government. Raw material dependence (eg. oil, diamonds) is another factor. Political repression and income inequality do not seem to be factor, though ethnic strife is where one faction is dominant.
Civil wars average six years in length, even longer in the poorest countries. Heavy raw material exports create the "Dutch disease" - currency rises, making other export activities uncompetitive. The more ethnically-diverse a population, the worse democracy performs in a resource-rich environment as "team voting" predominates (instead of competency).
Being landlocked makes a country dependent on ones' neighbors infrastructure, though it also presents a marketing opportunity if that nation is a buyer. Switzerland benefits, Uganda does not.
Successful turnarounds are more likely with a greater percentage of the population having at least a secondary education; a larger population also helps. Democracy, however, does not help.
The poorest nations "missed the boat" in the 1990s - Asian nations now have economies of scale as well as low wages. Rich nation's protecting their agricultural industries undermine aid programs to the poorest nations.
Finally, "The Bottom Billion" goes on to make suggestions. The bad news, however, as Collier points out, is that the real cure has to come from within.
Escaping the Poverty Trap August 26, 2007
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
Of the 6 billion people that inhabit the earth, it has been estimated that about 1 billion live in wealthy countries, 4 billion live in developing countries, and about 1 billion live in countries whose economies are either stagnant or declining. About 70 percent of those in the last category are in Africa. Now comes Paul Collier, director of the Center for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University, adding his name to the list of those who have attempted to formulate a strategy for lifting the bottom billion out of poverty. (Others include Jeffrey Sachs in The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time and William Easterly in The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good.)
Sachs is an optimist who believes that aid, correctly applied, can solve Africa's poverty. Easterly, on the other hand, is a pessimist, but concedes that aid, applied in a piecemeal fashion to see what works, can work. Collier is more of Easterly's persuasion, but differs in that he, Collier, is more interventionist.
According to Collier, the bottom billion live in "trapped countries," that have no visible means of improving their lot. He identifies 4 elements that cause countries to become trapped:
1)Civil war. Three-quarters of the bottom billion have been through or are currently experiencing civil war. Civil wars usually occur where there are large numbers of unemployed and uneducated young men, and where there are ethnic imbalances.
2)Natural resource curse. Countries with large amounts of natural resources tend not to develop the skill sets of their people, and they tend not to hold democratic elections. Corrupt governments and impoverished and violent masses are usually the result.
3)Landlocked countries. This is odd because many of the countries in Africa are coastel or on major waterways. Granted, being in a landlocked country is economically disadvantageous.
4)Bad governance. Bad governance is the hallmark of trapped countries often caused by elements 1 and 2.
Collier points out that aid is not a good idea since it works like the resource curse. It supports kleptocrats without making them accountable to their people. Indeed aid can retard economic development.
Furthermore, it has been established that most poor countries that have emerged from poverty have done so through labor-intensive export industries. The problem for Africa is that China and others are currently doing this making it very competitive. Collier thinks that best way for rich countries to foster growth in Africa is to eliminate or reduce tariffs on their exports. This prescription would probably fall on deaf ears in rich countries who are forever trying to protect their own industries.
More controversially, Collier argues that foreign military intervention would be helpful in stabilizing countries wracked by civil war. Currently, that would be a non-starter given the events in Iraq. There is, however evidence to support his claim: i.e. Sierra Leone.
The best advice that Collier gives is requiring trapped countries to comply with international laws and regulations in exchange for aid. Call it imperialism if you will, but the practice of the European Union of requiring recipients of aid to sign charters for better governance is really the best way to alleviate poverty. The European way of soft power is so far the most effective way to make development aid work.
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