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Independent research & practical ideas for global prosperity
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Independent research & practical ideas for global prosperity
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Global Prosperity Wonkcast
Archive for February, 2011The New Bottom Billion: Andy SumnerFebruary 28, 2011Posted by Lawrence MacDonald in Inequality, Poverty Tags: Andy Sumner, Inequality, Poverty
Andy Sumner, a visiting fellow at CGD and research fellow at the Institute for Development Studies at Sussex University, is boldly challenging that view with more recent data and a new frame of reference that tell a surprisingly different story: three out of four of the world’s poorest people, Andy asserts, live in middle-income countries with impressive growth rates but may nonetheless are trapped in extreme poverty. Andy joins me on this week’s Wonkcast to discuss his work on this “new” bottom billion. Podcast: Play in new window | Download 2 Comments »Overcoming Patronage in New Democracies: Simeon NichterFebruary 23, 2011Posted by Lawrence MacDonald in Governance/Democracy Tags: Corruption, Democracy, Simeon Nichter
While research on election shenanigans is not new, Simeon’s work is the first to demonstrate the distinction between two forms: “vote buying” (paying people to switch their votes) and “turnout buying” (paying people to show up at the polls and vote for candidates they favored anyway.) Simeon tells me that these different strategies have far-reaching implications for the politicians who employ them and for the voting poor. Podcast: Play in new window | Download 1 Comment »Egypt’s Next Big Challenge: Overcoming Reliance on RentsFebruary 14, 2011Posted by Lawrence MacDonald in Africa, Asia, Fragile States, Governance/Democracy Tags: Arvind Subramanian, Finance, Military Aid, Natural Resources
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In the interview, Arvind argues that Egypt’s biggest economic challenge is reliance on rents, which he defines as wealth derived from historical and geographical legacies rather than job-generating economic growth. Arvind includes among these the Suez Canal, which I was surprised to learn generates some $5 billion a year in fees; aid received in exchange for peace with Israel; the pyramids and other antiquities that draw tourists, and even remittances, which he says are the result not of Egyptian success but of failure that forces its citizens to seek work abroad. Podcast: Play in new window | Download 4 Comments »Confronting the Global Tobacco Epidemic: Thomas BollykyFebruary 7, 2011Posted by Lawrence MacDonald in Global Development, Global Health Policy Tags: Global Health, Tobacco, Tom Bollyky
My guest on this show is Thomas Bollyky, a visiting fellow here at CGD. Tom recently marked the 10th anniversary of Clinton’s order with articles in Foreign Policy and the Journal of the American Medical Association about how U.S. efforts to combat the global tobacco epidemic have remained modest, while tobacco companies have aggressively expanded markets for their products and opposed tobacco control and prevention programs in low- and middle-income countries. Podcast: Play in new window | Download Comment »
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Paul Collier’s 2007 book, The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It, changed the way we think about poverty and development. Collier argued that the majority of the 5-billion people in the “developing world” live in countries with sustained high growth rates and would eventually escape from poverty. The rest—the bottom billion—live in 58 small, poor, often land-locked countries that are growing very slowly or not at all. These countries, stuck in poverty traps, should be the focus of foreign aid, Collier argued.
In 1974, three out of four countries were ruled by authoritarian regimes; today, nearly half of all governments are democratically elected—and even more democracies may be emerging in the Middle East. But with elections come new form of patronage—such as offering benefits in exchange for votes—that can undermine the intent of democracy and effectiveness of programs intended to help the poor. My guest this week,
After the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak last Friday, I invited 
Ten years after President Clinton’s initiative to avert a global epidemic of tobacco-related disease, smoking is down in the United States but rising fast in poor countries, where Washington turns a blind eye to aggressive cigarette marketing banned at home.
