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The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It |
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Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: OUP Oxford (24 May 2007)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0195311450
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Global poverty is falling rapidly, but in around fifty failing states, the world's poorest people face a tragedy that is growing inexorably worse. This bottom billion live on less than a dollar a day and while the rest of the world moves steadily forward, this forgotten billion is left further and further behind with potentially serious consequences not only for them but for the stability of the rest of the world. Why do the states these people live in defy all the attempts of the international aid community to help them? Why does nothing seem to make a difference? In The Bottom Billion, Paul Collier pinpoints the issues of corruption, political instability and resource management that lie at the root of the problem. He describes the battle raging in these countries between corrupt leaders and would-be reformers and the factors such as civil war, dependence on the export of natural resources and lack of good governance that trap them into a downward spiral of economic and social decline. Collier addresses the fact that conventional aid has been unable to tackle these problems and puts forward a radical new plan of action including a new agenda for the G8 which includes more effective anti-corruption measures, preferential trade policies and where necessary direct military intervention. All of these initiatives are carefully designed to help the forgotten bottom billion, one of the key challenges facing the world in the twenty first century.
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Average rating:  (5.0) |
| My #1 book on development, 11/7/2008 | | | Reviewer: Jerry Marshall (, ) | | This is my #1 book on economic development. The book is about the interaction of conflict, stagnation, trade barriers and failed governance that keep the countries of the bottom billion of the earth's population trapped in extreme poverty. Thoroughly researched and very readable, Collier challenges conventional thinking and presents an agenda for intelligent and timely external input. Paul Collier is speaking at the TBN London Conference on 15 May 2009. |
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| The Economics of Microfinance
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The Economics of Microfinance |
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Paperback: 360 pages
Publisher: MIT Press (14 Sep 2007)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0262512017
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This work is an assessment of "the microfinance revolution" from an economics perspective that draws on lessons from academia and international practice to challenge conventional assumptions.The microfinance revolution, begun with independent initiatives in Latin America and South Asia starting in the 1970s, has so far allowed 65 million poor people around the world to receive small loans without collateral, build up assets, and buy insurance. This comprehensive survey of microfinance seeks to bridge the gap in the existing literature on microfinance between academic economists and practitioners. Both authors have pursued the subject not only in academia but in the field; Beatriz Armendariz founded a microfinance bank in Chiapas, Mexico, and Jonathan Morduch has done fieldwork in Bangladesh, China, and Indonesia.The book provides an overview of microfinance by addressing a range of issues, including lessons from informal markets, savings and insurance, the role of women, the place of subsidies, impact measurement, and management incentives.
It integrates theory with empirical data, citing studies from Asia, Africa, and Latin America and introducing ideas about asymmetric information, principal-agent theory, and household decision making in the context of microfinance.
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